The Ghana Blind Union (GBU) has called for a national dialogue involving policy makers and law enforcement officials at the local, regional and national levels on the abuse of blind people.
Addressing a news conference which forms part of the GBU Justice for All Project, Sponsored by STAR-Ghana in Accra on Tuesday, Dr Peter Obeng-Asamoh, Executive Director, GBU observed that it was an unfortunate truth that the history of blind persons in Ghana was largely one of exclusion and marginalization.
He said: “This historical disadvantage has to a great extent been shaped and perpetuated by the notion that blindness is an abnormality or a curse hence making us suffer all forms of abuse”.
Dr Obeng-Asamoh disclosed that owing to their exclusion from the labour force, being denied access to opportunities for social interaction, and advancement, subjected to unpleasant stereotyping and relegated to institutions, abuse of blind persons was prevalent and passive which happened in many ways.
He said following a current survey conducted on abuse of blind persons, it was revealed that 90 per cent of blind victims living in the rural communities who were abused repeatedly did not report their pains to authorities as most thought it would be futile to do so.
“Blind people, who are victims, cite futility, fear and lack of information as reasons for not reporting,” he said.
On types of abuse, the Executive Director of GBU stated that 87.2 per cent reported verbal-emotional abuse, while 50.6 per cent reported physical abuse, with 41.6 per cent suffering from sexual abuse, 37 per cent were neglected and 31.5 per cent experienced financial abuse.
He said the rate of sexual abuse varied greatly along gender lines, as 65 per cent of blind women reported they had been victims of sexual abuse.
Dr Obeng- Asamoah stressed that more than 90 per cent of blind people with disabilities who were victims of abuse said they had experienced such abuse on multiple occasions with 57 per cent of these victims saying according to the survey that they had been victims of abuse on more than 20 occasions, while 46 per cent said it happened too many times for them to even count.
He said going by the prevalence of abuse, “Over 70 per cent of blind people who took part in the survey reported they had been victims of abuse, while more than 63 per cent of parents and immediate family members reported that their loved ones who are blind have experience such abuses.
“Blind women, 74.8 per cent had a higher incidence of abuse than men”, he said.
According to Dr Obeng- Asamoah, among the blind persons who reported as victims of abuse, only 37.3 per cent said they had reported it to the authorities, adding that when families of victims and blind people who were victims were both considered, the rate of reporting increased to 51.7 per cent.
“The rates of non-reporting are high even with the most serious forms of abuse, for example, some 40 per cent of victims of physical abuse (violence) did not report it to the authorities and more than 41 per cent of victims of sexual abuse did report,” he said.
On outcomes of reportage, Dr Obeng- Asamoah indicated that, when blind victims report incidents of abuse to authorities, in 52.9 per cent of cases nothing happened while the alleged perpetrators were arrested in only 9.8 per cent of cases where abuse was reported to authorities.
Dr Obeng- Asamoah noted that after GBU’s findings of the survey, GBU had scheduled several meetings with authorities for a national conversation towards addressing the predicaments but all had proven futile.
He however appealed to the National Commission on Civic Education and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, the police, Judicial Service and traditional authorities on the need to inform and educate Ghanaians about the risk of abuse to their family members who are blind and also called for collaborative efforts amongst which was a national dialogue as well as an extensive media engagement that would help raise issues for attitudes to change as that was the main setback to the inhumane tortures being churned out to blind persons.
He therefore advised members of the GBU to report all abuse cases to appropriate authorities as reducing the risk of abuse and improving the reporting of suspected abuse was only a part of t way to addressing the problems identified by the survey.
“Processing reported cases more effectively is also a major area of concern”, he said.
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