in English - Handicap International

Among these groups are indigenous groups, Afro-descendent populations,
women, the elderly, people with disabilities, and ethnic, religious and sexual
minorities, all of whom are commonly referred to as “groups living in situations
of risk.”
Bengt Lindqvist, who was the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Disability,
has said that poverty produces disability, and that disability generates
poverty. In other words, there is a circular relationship between poverty and
disability, as both cause and outcome.
How does this happen?
Let’s look at how poverty can generate disabilities:
- If a family lives in very bad or precarious hygienic and health conditions,
some of its members will have a greater likelihood of acquiring a deficiency
that converts them into a disabled person. For instance, consuming contaminated
water can cause diseases that produce different types of visual
deficiencies or blindness.
DISABLING
DISEASES
- There are very risky and unsafe jobs that people accept because they
are poor. Many of these risky jobs or productive activities can endanger a
person’s health, and are an important cause of deficiencies that generate
a disability. One example: artisanal divers who fish for lobster along the Caribbean
coast of Nicaragua and Honduras, who suffer permanent injuries
and even death.
Here are three cases that demonstrate the ways that disabilities generate
poverty:
1) If a family member has a very severe disability, this person must generally
remain at home with another family member who must care for them. Consequently,
the person providing such care cannot work and will not generate
income for the family. Thus, both the person with the disability and their
caretaker must depend upon a reduced family income.
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