Putin says country needs to do more for people with disabilities Thu Nov 28, 2:37 PM ET
MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the Russian government has increased spending for the disabled, but he acknowledged that many people with disabilities still feel marginalized.
"Admittedly, society is judged, to a considerable extent, by how it treats the disabled," Putin said during a Kremlin meeting with leaders of organizations representing the disabled.
"We still have much to do in this field," he said, in remarks broadcast on television.
Russia has an estimated 10.8 million disabled -- or about one for every 14 men, women and children in the country, ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
But the country has few facilities for people with disabilities, and wheelchair access is rare. The situation is largely a holdover from the Soviet era, when the government believed that the sight of people with disabilities marred the image of the Soviet state, and preferred to have the disabled confined to their apartments.
Putin said the some improvements have been made. Vocational training to help people with disabilities enter the work force has increased. The government has boosted funding for medical treatment and for special public transportation for the disabled, Putin said, according to ITAR-Tass news agency.
Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matviyenko said that a draft law on benefits for the disabled would be sent to the Cabinet by Dec. 15.
Alexander Neumyvakin, president of the All-Russian Society of Blind People, urged the government to give tax breaks to enterprises that employ disabled people, ITAR-Tass said. Others called for changes in the land code to help organizations working with the disabled buy property.
The number of disabled in Russia has increased since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The decline of preventive medical care, accidents at Russia's aging, disaster-prone industries, and local armed conflicts all appeared to be factors.
Some 600,000 of the disabled are children, according to ITAR-Tass. About 13,000 people were injured during Russia's two campaigns in the breakaway republic of Chechnya, ITAR-Tass said.
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/ dave /