A handicapped person in his fifties recently hanged himself inside the offices of a city sub-district government building in protest of the lack of sufficient aid for the handicapped from the government. "Mr. Ju" lacked the full use of his limbs, and had virtually lived in the building for the past year while appealing for help facing the difficulty of maintaining a livelihood, and they say he had been asking for aid beyond what the regular legal aid. His story is heartbreaking because, in the end, it was the struggle to survive that made drove him to take his life.
According to local government employees, last year Ju received approximately W8.7 million in public support that included funds for his two daughters' education. Between January 2003 and February of this year he received W6.4 million from the Community Chest of Korea for, among other things, purchasing an electric wheelchair. They say he also received support from elsewhere for box lunches and gimchi. By the looks of it he received enough to maintain a minimum livelihood. But the reason he chose the extreme choice that is death is because he the system does not guarantee the handicapped the right to earn a living.
"Minimum living funds" are utterly insufficient in maintaining a "healthy and cultured life," but to the handicapped the problem is far more serious. That support is calculated uniformly, and is not enough for the handicapped to maintain the minimum of a life. Medical expenses and any equipment required cost a lot of money, yet support from insurance and other sources is almost nothing.
The case reveals problems such as the simple cash-centered system of support, the lack of active rehabilitation programs for the seriously handicapped, and insufficient family-centered welfare services. Problems stemming from personal handicap need to be approached with consideration for their physical, social, and psychological aspects. If the country does not adopt methods that take into consideration the specific situations and climates in which individual handicapped persons find themselves, those handicapped whom do not belong to the ranks of the "average handicapped people" will continue to have their ability to survive threatened.
No one his handicapped by choice, and anyone can find himself handicapped. Guaranteeing basic rights for the handicapped is the stage of a society's civic maturity when it comes to civil rights. Resolving the problems faced by the handicapped is not something that needs to be done only for the handicapped, but for everyone.
The Hankyoreh, 21 February 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Rights for Handicapped Means Rights for All |
