The rights of the physically and mentally challenged people should be seen as human rights, they said.

Action on Disability and Development (ADD) organised the workshop titled, 'Rights of the disabled people in the national budget' at Bangladesh Institute of Administration and Management (BIAM) auditorium in the city.

Presenting a paper, Zenin Ferdous of Bangladesh Development Council said that although the government has enacted 'Bangladesh Disabled Welfare Act 2001' and initiated necessary measures to reduce poverty of the people with disability, these were not implemented at the right moment.

She suggested providing free education for physically challenged students up to graduation level and introducing Braille system for visually impaired students.

She also called for raising the monthly allowance for the people with disability to Tk 250 from Tk 200 and giving the allowance to more people.

Representatives of ADD from 28 districts took part in the daylong workshop.

They called for allocating funds for educational equipment and skilled teachers for the disabled, providing loans on easy terms and raising awareness among people through media campaign.

They also demanded that the education of students with disability be brought under the Ministry of Education from the Ministry of Social Welfare.

ADD Country Representative Mosharraf Hossain told The Daily Star that the people with disability should be mainstreamed in education as well as employment.

"Adequate employment opportunities should be created for them in small and medium businesses," he added.

Dr Ananya Raihan, executive director of D.Net, moderated the programme while Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, president of Bangladesh Economic Association, Sharifa Begum, senior research fellow of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), and Adnan Islam of ADD also spoke.