Access Bangladesh Foundation and World Vision Bangladesh jointly organized a round table discussion on the “Rights and Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act 2013: The status of implementation and way forward” on 27 September 2017 at Spectra Convention Center, Gulshan-1, Dhaka. Advocate Abdul Matin Khasru MP, the Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs & Convener of Parliamentary Caucus on Disability was the Chief Guest. Mr. Sushanta Kumar Pramanik, Additional Secretary (Institution and Disabilities), Ministry of Social Welfare, Dr. A. M. Parvez Rahim, Director (Planning and Development), Deputy Secretary, National Foundation for Development of the Disabled Persons under Ministry of Social Welfare, Mr. Kishore Kumar Singh, Chief Technical Adviser, B-SEP Project, ILO were present as special guests. Md. Zahidul Kabir, National Advocacy Coordinator of World Vision Bangladesh presented a keynote paper. In his presentation, he highlights major findings derived from a survey recently conducted by Access Bangladesh and World Vision which includes, no meeting was held yet of the National Coordination Committee and National Executive Committee since its formation in February, 2016, out of 45 Upazila only 11 have Upazila Committee and these committees are not functional as per law, out of 11 Districts, 9 have District Committee of which only 2 committees organized meetings regularly and the rest 7 Districts didn’t organize any meeting yet, committee didn’t submit annual reports as per law etc. Mr. A. M. Khasru said that raising mass awareness can play a vital role to implement the act. He also added that coordinated and collaborative initiative of government and non-government organizations is crucial to implement the law. Dr. Parvez said that we need a national action plan to implement the law which is now in final stage. Mr. Pramanik assured that steps will be taken to get approval of the action plan as soon as possible. The event was chaired by Ms. Mohua Paul and moderated by Mr. Albert Mollah of Access Bangladesh Foundation.
