Global health advocates decry stigma on girls living with disabilities

Women and girls living with disabilities face three times greater risk of sexual abuse

Nairobi, Kenya | Xinhua | Rampant discrimination and stigma meted on adolescent girls living with physical impairments required concerted effort to eradicate, international health advocates said on Tuesday.

The advocates said in a statement issued in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi that disability had worsened human right violation, social and economic exclusion among women and girls.

“Systemic barriers, coupled with the failure to prioritize the collection of data on the situation of women and girls with disabilities, have perpetuated their invisibility within societies,” said Helga Fogstad, the executive director of Partnership for Maternal Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH).

Fogstad noted that adolescent girls living with disability had borne the brunt of poverty, inability to access basic services like education, health and shelter, to the detriment of their social and economic well-being.

According to Fogstad, poverty and illiteracy had denied disabled women and girls stable jobs hence the urgency to provide them with life-long skills, mentorship and financial support.

Statistics from PMNCH indicate that disabled children and adolescents aged 0 to 17 years are 27 percent more likely to be out of upper secondary school, 41 percent more likely to feel discriminated against and 51 percent more likely to feel unhappy compared to their able-bodied peers.

Globally, an estimated 240 million children and adolescents aged 0 to 17 years or one in ten are living with disabilities, even as they encounter stigma in the family unit and learning institutions.

The adolescent girls who are disabled have been unable to access quality reproductive health services while the threat to their personal safety is profound, according to health advocates.

Women and girls living with disabilities face three times greater risk of sexual abuse and are likely to be survivors of all forms of gender-based violence compared to their counterparts with no physical impairment, noted the advocates.

The advocates called for enhanced data collection, targeted financing and community awareness to minimize social and economic marginalization affecting physically disabled women and girls.

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Xinhua