Small Grantees

From 2018 to 2020, seven disabled people's organizations (DPOs) in seven districts undertook advocacy campaigns to promote implementation of the Persons with Disabilities Rights and Protection Act, 2013 (DRPA). Collectively, they organized over 90 meetings with district committee members; over 80 trainings and awareness-raising events reaching over 2,000 persons with disabilities; 31 advocacy conferences reaching over 1,000 civil society members; and 7 legal aid camps resulting in the filing of Bangladesh's first 22 applications under Section 36 of the DRPA. With the support of BlueLaw International, LLP and its national-level partners Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), the National Grassroots Disabilities Organization (NGDO), and the National Council of Disabled Women (NCDW), the seven DPOs selected to receive small grants under USAID's Expanding Participation of People with Disability (EPD) program have successfully activated and strengthened the DRPA district committees in their seven districts, an essential component for effective DRPA implementation.

BPUS

Bangladesh Protibandhi Unnayan Sangstha (BPUS) | Barisal

  • BPUS organized 16 one-on-one meetings with Barisal district committee members and 2 meetings of the full committee. Because of BPUS's advocacy,the Barisal district committee held its first-ever meeting.
  • Also, BPUS used its meeting with the Barisal District Education Officer to advocate that she issue an advisory letter to all school headmasters on their obligations to admit students with disabilities and to provide them reasonable accommodations, which she did.
  • BPUS organized 7 trainings, educating over 188 persons with disabilities and their supporters on the DRPA.
  • BPUS organized 6 advocacy conferences on the DRPA, reaching over 290 persons, including teachers, journalists, lawyers, doctors, NGO workers, and other civil society members.
  • BPUS organized its first-ever legal aid camp, reaching over 157 participants and providing legal advice to 14 persons with disabilities. This legal aid camp gave BPUS opportunity to refer the first-ever person with disability in Barisal to file a Section 36 application, with assistance from BLAST's Barisal unit office.
DDRC

Disabled Development and Resource Center (DDRC) | Chittagong

  • DDRC organized 16 one-on-one meetings with Chittagong district committee members and 2 roundtable discussions with the full committee. Because of DDRC's advocacy, its Executive Director has become a committee member and has helped to ensure that the district committee met four times each calendar year.
  • Also, DDRC used its meetings with district committee members to advocate successfully for the installation of wheelchair ramps at several government buildings.
  • DDRC organized 2 trainings and 8 courtyard meetings, educating over 239 persons with disabilities and their supporters on the DRPA.
  • DDRC organized 4 advocacy conferences on the DRPA, reaching over 183 persons, including judges, court staff, and panel lawyers, to educate them about their responsibilities to ensure an accessible justice system.
  • BPUS organized its first-ever legal aid camp, reaching over 176 participants and providing legal advice to 27 persons with disabilities. DDRC has helped 2 of these persons to prepare Section 36 applications.
  • Additionally, DDRC's advocacy led to the filing of the first-ever Section 36 application in Brahmanbaria district on behalf of a girl with disability who was denied admission to an examination.
KZPF

Kampon Zilla Protibandhi Federation (KZPF) | Kushtia

  • KZPF organized 16 one-on-one meetings with Kushtia district committee members as well as the district's first-ever full committee meeting. Because of KZPF's advocacy, its President has become a committee member.
  • KZPF organized 19 trainings, educating over 389 persons with disabilities and their supporters on the DRPA.
  • KZPF assisted a training participant to file the district's first-ever Section 36 application due to a disability-based denial to submit a job application, which resulted in Bangladesh's first-ever favorable decision by a DRPA district committee.
  • KZPF organized 4 advocacy conferences on the DRPA, reaching over 162 persons, including lawyers, university professors, and chamber of commerce representatives, to educate them about their responsibilities to ensure persons' with disabilities right to employment.
  • KZPF organized its first-ever legal aid camp, reaching over 65 participants and providing legal advice to 8 persons with disabilities. KZPF has helped 5 of these persons to prepare Section 36 applications.
PPMS

Protibandhi Punorbashon o Manobadhikar Samity (PPMS) | Pabna

  • PPMS organized 14 one-on-one meetings with Pabna district committee members as well as the district's first-ever full committee meeting. Because of PPMS's advocacy, its President has also become a committee member.
  • PPMS organized 11 trainings, educating over 246 persons with disabilities and their supporters on the DRPA.
  • PPMS organized 4 advocacy conferences on the DRPA, reaching over 160 persons, including journalists, lawyers, chamber of commerce representatives, and other civil society members to educate them about their responsibilities to ensure persons' with disabilities right to employment.
  • PPMS organized its first-ever legal aid camp, reaching over 128 participants. With assistance from BLAST's Pabna unit office, PPMS has helped 10 persons with disabilities file Section 36 applications, the highest recorded number of applications in any district.
  • Also, PPMS and BLAST's Pabna unit office successfully assisted a blind man to mediate a wrongful termination dispute with his employer, resulting in an offer of reinstatement and monetary compensation.
Prottasha

Prottasha Protibandhi Nari o Shishu Unnayan (PPNSU) | Rangpur

  • PPNSU organized 9 one-on-one meetings with Rangpur district committee members as well as the district's first-ever full committee meeting. Because of PPNSU's advocacy, its General Secretary has also become a committee member.
  • PPNSU organized 12 trainings, educating over 333 persons with disabilities and their supporters on the DRPA.
  • PPNSU organized 4 advocacy conferences on the DRPA, reaching over 150 persons, including journalists, lawyers, and other civil society members to educate them about their responsibilities to protect women's and children's rights under the DRPA.
  • PPNSU organized its first-ever legal aid camp, reaching over 112 participants and providing legal advise to 10 persons. PPNSU has helped one them, a blind man who alleges that a parcel of land belonging to him has been misappropriated, to file a Section 36 application.
SEID

SEID (Society for Education and Inclusion of the Disabled) | Dhaka

  • SEID organized 4 one-on-one meetings between self-advocacy group members with Dhaka district committee members.
  • Also, after a year of unsuccessful advocacy efforts, SEID's self-advocates organized a human chain to pressure the committee to hold its first meeting, as required by law. The committee met for the first time the following week.
  • SEID organized 12 monthly meetings of its self-advocacy group, as well as two day-long trainings to ensure that self-advocates became knowledgeable advocates for DRPA implementation.
  • SEID organized its first-ever legal aid camp, reaching over 163 participants, providing legal advice to 12 persons with disabilities. With assistance from BLAST's Dhaka unit office, a deaf man of them successfully resolved his intrafamiliar property dispute through mediation, and another filed Dhaka's first Section 36 application, the first-ever application to be submitted to the district committee electronically.
  • Additionally, SEID responded to news reports in Kishoreganj about an alleged rights violation experienced by a young man with intellectual disability. Thanks to SEID's advocacy, he filed that district's first-ever Section 36 application, which resulted in Bangladesh's first-ever hearing by a district committee on such an application. The committee ultimately issued a decision recognizing that the parties had settled the complaint informally.
Tangail

Tangail Disabled People's Organization to Development (Tangail DPOD)

  • Tangail DPOD organized 14 one-on-one meetings with Tangail district committee members as well as the district's first-ever full committee meeting.
  • Also, Tangail DPOD used its district committee members to advocate successfully for the installation of a Section 36 application deposit box outside the District Social Services Office.
  • Tangail DPOD organized 12 trainings and courtyard meetings, educating over 290 persons with disabilities and their supporters on the DRPA.
  • Tangail DPOD organized 7 advocacy conferences on the DRPA, reaching over 246 persons, including teachers, journalists, lawyers, doctors, and NGO workers to educate them about persons with disabilities' rights to equal opportunity and full participation in all aspects of life.
  • Tangail DPOD organized its first-ever legal aid camp, reaching over 136 participants and providing legal advice 27 persons with disabilities. Tangail DPOD assisted 6 of them to file the district's first-ever Section 36 applications.
  • With assistance from BLAST's Tangail unit office, Tangail has helped 3 secondary school students with disabilities to mediate successfully denials of reasonable accommodations with their school management committees.
  • Additionally, Tangail DPOD has successfully filed a request under the Right to Information Act, 2009 and received the first recorded response regarding its district committee's activities.

Additional Links: USAID Bangladesh • BlueLaw International

This website is made possible with the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under Cooperative Agreement No. AID-388-A-17-00005. The contents are the sole responsibility of BlueLaw International and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of USAID or the U.S. Government.

This domain was previously home to a joint report by NGDO, NCDW, and BLAST entitled “Current Status of Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Bangladesh: Legal and Grassroots Perspectives 2015,” produced with funding from the Disability Rights Fund. It is now available here.