by Bharathi Ram - South Asia, East Asia and Pacific -

MICROCAPITAL STORY: Pakistan Ministry of Social Welfare and Special Education to Introduce Micro-Credit Scheme for Disabled

The Pakistan Ministry of Social Welfare and Special Education is working on a micro-credit scheme for disabled people in the country, according to a press release on the Nation, the Pakistani news daily [1]. The scheme, which has reportedly been given ‘top priority’ is expected to bring ‘social empowerment’ for persons with disability. The Ministry is reportedly in consultation with several banks including the Pakistan based Kushali Bank, to lay the ground work for an ‘easy way of providing loans to disabled people with a minimum interest’ [1]. In the words of the Pakistan Minister for Social Welfare and Special Education, Ms. Samina Khalid Ghurki, this scheme by the Government is an effort toward making Pakistan ‘a disabled friendly state of the world’. Ms. Gurkhi also expressed hope that these efforts would ‘bring substantial change in living standards of these [disabled] persons’ [1].

As per information available, the Ministry has started a project to issue special ID cards for disabled people in the country, with the cards carrying the universal logo of a disabled person and wheel chair. It is, however, unclear if this project is also an initiative under the micro-credit scheme in discussion. Reports indicate that these ID cards would facilitate the disabled to claim concessions on traveling fares of Pakistan International Airlines and Pakistan Railways in addition to free medical treatment in public sector hospitals and benefits in other undisclosed schemes. As per information available in a press release on The News, another Pakistan news portal, a 50 per cent concession in fares in all modes of travel – air, rail or road – for disabled persons would be implemented in Pakistan within the next three months [8]. No further information on the microcredit scheme is currently available in the public domain.

Disability is a dimension of poverty which on the whole remains quite neglected [2], with very few disabled persons having access to microfinance, says the World Bank [3]. A 2005 research paper by microfinance researcher/ consultant Roy Mersland and commissioned by the Norwegian development organization, Atlas Alliance, titled ‘Micro-credit for Self Employed Disabled Persons in Developing Countries’, is suggestive of the fact that there exists a disconnect between the microfinance community and the disabled population in terms of information and knowledge. The research states that advocates of micro-credit for persons with disabilities seem not to be informed on how micro-credit works, whereas the microfinance community lacks information on disability issues and how to better serve the segment [4]. Further insight is offered by Joshua Goldstein, Principal Senior Director, Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION International, in his blog where he says that training loan officers to cater to a diverse client base with different forms of disability and with varying degrees of impairment is a key challenge for MFIs serving disabled people [7].

According to a publication on id21– a development research and knowledge service enabled by the UK Government Department for International Development and hosted by the Institute of Development Studies, at the University of Sussex, UK – there is very limited internationally-comparable data on the rate and distribution of impairment and disability. Further, national-level data is also often unreliable and out of date, particularly in developing countries [6]. Available information indicates that about 10 percent of a given population can be defined as disabled, with nearly 80 percent of them living in developing countries, according to a 2002 World Bank study. Further, up to as many as one of every six of the poor can be categorized as disabled [p9, 4]. In Pakistan, according to the 5th National census conducted in 1998, nearly 2.5 percent of its total population is disabled, with nearly 2.2 percent of the total female population suffering from some form of disability [5]. (The 6th national census was scheduled to take place in late 2008, the results of which do not appear to have been published in the public domain yet). Please look up here for an exhaustive list of MicroCapital’s past features on microfinance in Pakistan.

By Bharathi Ram, Research Assistant

Bibliography:

[1] The Nation, August 11 2009, Micro-credit Scheme for Disabled on the Cards, http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Regional/Islamabad/11-Aug-2009/Micro-credit-scheme-for-disabled-on-cards

[2] Inclusion of Disabled People in Mainstream Microfinance, by Sarah Dyer, http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache%3AudWwB12O2J4J%3Awww.research4development.info%2FPDF%2FOutputs%2FChronicPoverty_RC%2FDyer.pdf+microfinance+for+disabled&hl=en&gl=us

[3] World Bank. Disability, Microfinance and Disability, PSD Forum 2006, http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTSOCIALPROTECTION/EXTDISABILITY/0,,contentMDK:20868371~menuPK:282704~pagePK:64020865~piPK:149114~theSitePK:282699,00.html

[4] Micro-credit for Self Employed Disabled Persons in Developing Countries, by Roy Mersland, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=970519

[5] Asia Pacific Development Center on Disability, http://www.apcdproject.org/countryprofile/pakistan/pakistan_stat.html

[6] id21, Poverty and Disability: Breaking the Vicious Cycle through Inclusion, http://www.id21.org/insights/insights46/insights-iss46-art06.html

[7] ACCION Center for Financial Inclusion Blog, The Disabled Poor, by Joshua Goldstein, http://centerforfinancialinclusionblog.wordpress.com/2009/08/07/the-disabled-poor/

[8] The NEWS, Disabled People to pay Half-fares throughout Pakistan, http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=189585

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