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    "id": 813992,
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    "content": "also move around. It is a big issue. The same also applies to those with developmental disabilities. There is also the issue of retirement age. In the last Parliament, I was able to successfully move an amendment to increase the retirement age for PWDs from 60 to 65 years. It is because of the understanding that PWDs take longer to be employed. So, you give them an extra five years so that they are able to compensate for the time lost when they are “tarmacking”. Some of the people that we help to get jobs, get them in their mid to late 30s, when their peers started working even in their early 20s. There is also the issue of cash transfers for those with severe disabilities. Currently, about 46,000 households are benefiting. There is also the provision of assistive devices such as wheelchairs, crutches, including sunscreen lotions for persons with albinism. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is the issue of medical attention for those who are in constant need of medical attention. The law provides that, that should be the purview of the Government. You can also qualify for educational grants if you are in this state. The law also provides that it is not just PWDs that who be registered, but also organisations of the PWDs. These are organisations that are run by PWDs themselves. There are also other organisations for PWDs, which work with the PWDs in the development process. These also need to be registered and it is an attendant cost. However, there have been a lot of challenges. I wish I had more time to talk about this, but let me just finalise. First and foremost, registration of PWDs is not like the normal registration like the way you are registered to get an Identity Card or when you are joining school. For the PWDs, you require a medical report. That means that a board of doctors must sit to declare you a disabled person. It is because the disability comes from the body. This is personal and we say ‘the person is political.’ They have to ascertain that there is some form of bodily loss of function of one or more organs. So, it is a technical area. You also have to pay for that board to sit, yet these are poor people. There is a directional covariance between poverty and disability, where poverty leads to disability and disability leads to poverty. So, there is that challenge. There is also the issue of distance. You have got to go to where the boards are sitting. They usually sit in hospitals. You can imagine people who have mobility challenges; if you are visually impaired or totally blind, you require, for example, a guide to go with you. There is also the issue of language. As a result of low levels of education, language is also a great barrier. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other issue is dependency. As I said, you may even need an assistant. If it is a mother who has a child with severe disability, they need to plan to take their child to be registered. Of course, after that, there are a lot of delays because those reports have to come from the counties to Afya House. It takes an inordinate long time that leads to the PWDs being asked to pay bribes for their medical reports to be released for them to get the identification cards of disability. This is a real abuse and I have received a lot of complaints about it. One would then want to ask: “What is the remedy?” The quick answer would be: “We have a census next year and a pre-census on 24th and 25th of August, 2018.” There is something called “the Washington Group of Questions”. These are questions that have The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}