DHAKA, Sept 21, 2024 (BSS)- Poet, writer and philosopher Farhad Mazhar has said poor structure of the state is keeping alive the issue of differently abled people in the society.
“If the state could get a proper structure, then the issues relating to differently abled people would have been resolved automatically,” he said.

Farhad Mazhar was addressing a discussion titled “Disabled people invisible in public sphere: Our expectations to build discrimination free Bangladesh” here today.

Bangladesh Society for Change and Advocacy Nexus (B-SCAN) organized the discussion at Professor Muzaffar Ahmed Chowdhury Auditorium of Dhaka University.

Director General of Bangla Academy Dr Mohammad Azam and B-SCAN director Iftekhar Mahmud spoke on the occasion conducted by Salma Khatun.

“If you can develop an inclusive state concept and structure, the physically challenged people must have their space in the state policy, they would not need any compassion,” Farhad Mazhar said.

He said, “State thoughts of our society are very weak. We don’t understand the difference between the government and the state. I frequently talk about building state structure as the disabled issue is included in the concept.

Farhad Mazhar observed that the issue of disabled people never appeared as a major crisis in the rural society as the people used to respond it by any means. But, the response is absent in the state level due to the influence of capitalism.

Mentioning consumption of soybean oil as one of the major reasons for increasing number of children with neurological and developmental disorder in the country, he said, the oil is genetically modified and the first world countries don’t consume the oil, dumping it to third world countries.

“Western world propagated that Bangladesh’s best mustard oil is only for external use. But, if we can stop the consumption of soybean oil, a number of problems will be solved,” he added.
Bangla Academy Director General Dr Mohammad Azam said the state cannot avoid the responsibility of taking care of physically challenged people.