IN olden days, disability was perceived by society as either God's punishment to individuals who did not obey His commandments or a consequence of someone's evil deeds that have manifested themselves.

Persons with disabilities were considered unholy and were excluded from able-bodied persons so as to avoid contact because it was believed that such a persons could infect others.

In some extreme instances, a person with disabilities was ordered to always give a signal that there was unclean person to an on-coming able-bodied by shouting, "unclean, unclean".

Today, although the myths and misconceptions surrounding disability have continued to exist in some sectors of the Zambian society, the modern world has generally seen a drastic change of attitude towards people with disabilities.

Various awareness fora, conventions and policies at local and international level have been held and formulated to demystify the negative perception of the disabled but most importantly to protect their interests as well as to propagate that disabled have as much equal opportunities as able-bodied persons.

To demonstrate this equality, the Government has included a chapter on disability in the Fifth National Development Plan (FNDP).

The Government's concern for people with disabilities has further been authenticated by the inclusion of disability components in a number of policy documents such as the national employment and labour market and the national youth policies.

Suffice to mention though, that the Government is yet to formulate a policy that is specifically aimed at addressing issues concerning the disabled persons.

Notwithstanding the interventions by different institutions to address disability issues, people with disabilities have continued to be marginalised in many aspects.

Presenting the report at the recently held stakeholders consultative workshop, ZAPD management consultant Stephen Mwamba said more than 80 per cent of people with disabilities are self-employed while the least of the population are employers.

Mr Mwamba said among all categories of disabilities, the largest proportion of household heads is self-employed while only 0.5 are employers.

"The most common occupation among the people with disabilities is agriculture at over 80 per cent while other occupations are sales at 5.1 per cent, production and transport at 6.2 and profession and technical at four per cent," he said.

With the country's relatively weaker social welfare, these existing gaps and inadequacies have subjected people with disabilities to escalating levels of poverty, street begging and high illiteracy levels.

Since last year, various stakeholders have asked the Government to ratify the United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in order to easily articulate the rights of disabled people.

The convention, which came into force in May 2008, recognises persons with disabilities as subjects of human rights, active in decision-making that affect their normal lives and adequately empower them to claim their rights.

Zambia signed the UN-CRPD convention last year but the country is yet to ratify the treaty. Once that is done the country would be obliged to promote the full realisation of all civil, cultural, economical, political and social rights of people with disabilities.

The disabled persons believe that the delay by the Government to ratify the convention was hampering their dreams of having a clear policy on disability in Zambia.

Without specific policy on disability, the Government seems to have found it hard to effectively enhance the quality provisions of service delivery to people with disabilities.

The ZAPD, a legally constituted body to help people with disabilities on behalf of the Government seems to be disabled too both in finance and human resource, as it has failed to sufficiently fulfill its mandate.

Despite receiving a monthly grant of K400 million, the institution has failed to operate to the expectations of not only the Government but also its affiliates and individual disabled people.

Community Development and Social Services Deputy Minister Friday Malwa highlighted the concerns by ZAPD the failure by the institution to stand on its own despite having several sources of income.

At the recent ZAPD stakeholders consultative workshop Mr Malwa attributed the failure to perform by the institution to mismanagement of resources, which had forced the Government to sanction auditing of the institution. The process is currently on but Mr Malwa was unhappy with the revealing so far.

"A lot of issues have been revealed where people employ their unqualified relatives at the expense of right people.

"Not only that, it has been revealed that there are situations where people have been putting in their pocket the money which is supposed to go towards issues affecting people with disabilities," he said.

The workshop attracted more than 150 participants drawn from all parts of the country from Mbala in Northern province to Lundazi in the Eastern.

The deputy minister said the Government through ZAPD had seen the need for improvement of planning, budgeting and monitoring capacity to enhance service delivery to disabled people.

He said the Government alone could not achieve the intended objectives of the convention in the provision of service without consented efforts from all stakeholders.

ZAPD director general Charles Mwape said that there has still been discrimination against people with disabilities in labour and social environment.

Dr Mwape said the protection from discrimination against disabled persons in employment must be done away with for persons with disabilities to be involved in national development.

The director general said ZAPD had the mandate to ensure that terms of employment, recruiting process and conditions of service was not discriminatory against disabled persons.

Faith, belief and hope was evident among the participants, as most of them could not hide their delight at the Government's assurance on issues affecting people with disabilities.

"Personally, am sure the Government is doing its best and we hope this will continue to ensure that more disabled people are assisted and take part in national development," one of the participants Francisca Muyenga said.

Ms Muyenga who is also executive director for the Zambia National Association of Disabled Women said there was need to develop a culture of paying back when disabled persons access loans.

Mr Mutale who is the president of the Zambia Rehabilitation Service of the Blind also noted that ZAPD had for the first time come up with a comprehensive report that could change the lives of the disabled people if well implemented.

Margaret Kasonde from Mbala sai that time has come for people with disabilities to be included in decision making on policy matters of the Government.

If the Government's assurance on matters affecting the disabled persons induced some hope, then the onus is on ZAPD to make a mark with the K400 million monthly grant from the Government.

As the country implements the FNDP which has included the disability chapter, it will be helpful for ZAPD to guide its affiliates how they can rightly claim their right positions during the process.

The olden days are gone. And so are their myths and misconceptions about disability. Disability is no longer a taboo, neither is it a punishment from God because everyone has potential to become disabled.

As the Government weighs up on whether or not to ratify the CPRD accord, relevant stakeholders need to continue with programmes aimed at assisting people with disabilities.