Bangladesh’s 2013 Persons with Disabilities Rights and Protection Act (DRPA) establishes 64 district-level committees to implement the law. The law also requires each committee to meet four times each year. However, the Dhaka district has not met once, as required by law, which impedes the law’s implementation in Bangladesh’s capital city. After a year of advocating privately with Dhaka district committee members, SEID’s self-advocates, young men and women with intellectual disabilities, decided to make public their demands for the committee to meet.

Through USAID’s Expanding Participation of People with Disability program, which aims to mobilize key stakeholders to promote DRPA implementation, and with the support of BlueLaw International and its national-level partners (BLAST, NCDW, and NGDO), SEID organized a human chain outside the National Museum in Dhaka’s Shahbag section. On January 26^th, due to SEID self-advocates’ pressure, the Dhaka district committee held its first meeting as required by the DRPA. SEID self-advocates participated at this historic meeting of the Dhaka committee, presided over by Dhaka's Additional Deputy Commissioner, and educated members about their duties under the law.   

Find additional cover of SEID self-advocates' human chain, visit the Dhaka Tribune or Bangla Tribune.

SEID (Society for Education and Inclusion of the Disabled) self-advocacy group leader Shila Moni and BlueLaw's In-Country Coordinator Adv. Rejaul Karim Siddiquee joined ColoursFM host RJ Sumi for a special edition of the weekly "Ain o Amra" (Law and Us) radio program to discuss implementation of the Disability Rights and Protection Act, 2013, and the role of persons with disabilities and DPOs to raise awareness of the Act and to demand more effective action by the Bangladesh government and civil society to ensure that this important law becomes a reality.

You can view the whole program by following this link: https://www.facebook.com/Coloursfm1016/videos/792713751173900.