Staff Reporter :
About 50 percent of eye patients in Bangladesh suffer from sight disability.
Of them, the females share 53 percent and the males do 47 percent.
Sightsavers, an international charity, collected data from 7,079 patients (3,326 males and 3,753 females) who received health care services during the period from 16th September to 30th November 2018.
The report said, the visual disability increased among the aged people and the most common additional functional limitations were walking, remembering and concentrating.
The international charity disclosed the information at the Platinum Grand hotel in the city on Tuesday. In this regard, Sightsavers organised Disability Data Disaggregation (DDD) baseline finding sharing workshop under the project titled ‘The Right to Health: Breaking Down Barriers to Eye Health in South Asia’. The project is funded by UKaid from the British People. The aim of the workshop is to share the baseline findings of the DDD study with relevant stakeholders including Government, INGOs, NGOs and persons with disabilities.
Addressing as the chief Guest SK Hamim Hassan, Director of Jatiyo Protibondhi Unnayan Foundation said, the incumbent government is very sincere for the development of persons with disabilities. The government has taken lots of initiatives for the development of them. “We do not know about the percentage of disabilities that are entering health sector”, he said.
This study result will contribute to achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).
Dr. Ashrafi Ahmed, Programme Director of Disability Detection Survey Programme of Department of Social Services highlighted about collaboration of government and NGO for improving the life of physical disability.
The government had utilised a set of questionnaire of International Classification of Functional Disability in our disability identification survey. Using Washington Group Short Set of Questionnaire (WGSSQ), we got another view to know about persons with disabilities are entering health services. Such work is required to improve our work. Khondoker Ariful Islam, Country Director of Sightsavers presided over the function. Relevant stakeholders including Government, INGOs, NGOs and persons with disabilities were also present on the occasion.
