The World Bank will provide $25 million in assistance for government-run Disability and Children-at-Risk Project (DCRP), to be launched next year for better care and rehabilitation of the persons with disabilities.

The DCRP project seeks to improve health, education and employment opportunities for people with disability and raising public awareness about their empowerment.

The DCRP will focus on three areas -- disability services, awareness and capacity building; children-at-risk services and capacity building of the Ministry of Social Welfare.

Social Welfare Adviser Geeteara Safiya Choudhury in a meeting with the World Bank officials on September 17 signed documents on the project outlining plans for restructuring of a key institution involved in the project implementation, World Bank sources said.

As per the new outline a centre of excellence like Palli Karma Sangsthan Foundation (PKSF) and Social Development Fund (SDF) will be created by restructuring the existing National Foundation for the Development of Disabled Persons (NFDDP).

Dr Qaiser Khan, lead human development specialist, World Bank

Headquarters, said the World Bank has decided to support the project with finances and ideas to ensure the effective use of social and rehabilitation services for the people with disabilities, vulnerable children and adolescents.

"Usually, physical disability of a person comes to our notice first. But we don't see the mental side of disability which should be the main aspect to be noticed," Dr Qaiser told UNB.

The National Foundation for the Development of Disabled People (NFDDP) is expected to implement the first focus area, aimed at transforming the agency into the centre of excellence for disability services.

The NFDDP is also likely to replicate model management structure and operational processes of the SDF and PKSF.

According to the sources, the NFDDP also plans to involve NGOs with a disability focus in undertaking awareness activities through area-based performance contracting, training and support to partner organisations, and innovation grants.

The NFDDP board is yet to finalise the decision on NGO involvement.

The Social Welfare Ministry, as per the project outline, will undertake activities such as surveys, censuses, and needs assessments of Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) and highly vulnerable children, training for the ministry staff and its social workers.

It will also provide technical assistance for medium to long-term implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People, which Bangladesh has signed recently.

A recently conducted prevalence study of Handicap International and National Forum of Organisations Working with the Disabled (NFOWD) on 13,205 people from all over Bangladesh found 5.6 percent as prevalence rate of disability.

Visual impairment was found to have the largest prevalence. Among the people with disabilities, the percentage share of different types of impairments were: 32.2 percent visual impairment, 27.8 percent physical disability, 18.6 percent hearing impairment, 6.7 intellectual disability, 3.9 speech impairment and 10.7 percent multiple disability.

The study that also provides age-wise breakup of disability along with types of disabilities showed that the distribution of types of disability is about the same across the income groups, except for physical impairments, which increase systematically with raising income poverty.