Home ›› 17 Aug 2021 ›› Front
Lack of affordable wheelchair hits those with disabilities even harder in the wake of complete dependence on import, rather than local production.
Currently, the supply crunch of wheelchairs is attributed to the sudden price hike. As a result, a good number of physically challenged people in Bangladesh have been struggling to obtain such a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible owing to their illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability.
These can also include spinal cord injuries (paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebral palsy, brain injury, osteogenesis imperfecta, motor neuron disease, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, spina bifida, and more.
The demand for wheelchair has been increasing day by day in Bangladesh as hundreds of people are becoming physically challenged every year due to brain strokes, rampant road accidents and other causes as well.
There is a severe scarcity of wheelchairs in the market for the last 4-5 months as the importers are currently not willing to import this medical item any further due to low profit margin, said the importers, wholesalers and retailers.
Apart from that, the country is now fully dependent on China-made wheelchairs as there is no local company for its commercial production in Bangladesh.
Since prices of wheelchairs have gone up in China itself along with higher shipping costs, the shortage of the imported wheelchairs in the domestic market is now so acute that the prices of these chairs are also going beyond the reach of the common people with disabilities.
Abdul Wahab, a resident of Rampura, went to a medical equipment shop at Agargaon beside the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedic Rehabilitation to purchase a wheelchair for his younger brother who lost his legs in a road accident six months ago.
“Six months back while my brother was admitted to the nearby hospital, a shop owner had offered me a wheelchair for Tk 4,000. But I could not buy it for my brother at that time not only for higher price but also for lack of money. Since a wheelchair has now become a part and parcel of his everyday life, I have bought the same chair today at a cost of Tk 5,200,” he added.
“We have finally sent back the money, we had earlier received as early payment from the retailers for supplying the wheelchairs because we could not procure them accordingly,” said Din Islam, proprietor of Shariotpur Surgical, a whole seller of medical equipment in Paltan area, the main market in the capital.
He also said, “A whole seller can earn only Tk 50 by selling a wheelchair. It is not at all a viable business just to earn only Tk 50 by investing Tk 5,000 at a time when the importers are also failing to maintain the supply chain. All these things together can be held responsible for the wheelchair scarcity and its consequent price hike.’’
Aziz Co-operative Medicine and Medical Equipment Market, is one of the core wheelchair markets for importers, wholesalers and retailers. During a recent visit to this market, only one shop (Zitu Enterprise) was seen exhibiting only two pieces of wheelchairs in the shop.
Zitu Enterprise proprietor Mahfuzur Rahman Mollah said, “Though people are asking for wheelchairs, we are now reluctant to sell this item because of very low profit. Suppliers are also not interested in importing this item nowadays and there is no local producer in Bangladesh.”
Apu Hossain, a medical equipment importer at Aziz Co-operative Medicine and Medical Equipment Market, said, “Apart from other troubles, a wheelchair needs more space in the ships while importing and it is also the same case even at warehouses and in the retail shops.”
“Moreover, the price of wheelchairs has increased by 15 per cent in China. So, we have excluded the wheelchairs item from our import list,” he added.
Wheelchair market worth Tk 125 crore
The country needs more than 2,50,000 wheelchairs annually. Mostly, stroke survivors need a wheelchair the most followed by orthopedics patients and road accident survivors.
Referring to the hospital’s own study, director of the National Institute of Neurosciences and Hospital Dr Quazi Deen Mohammad said, “Around 2,50,000 people need wheelchairs annually due to stroke.”
“Around 900 people annually suffer from stroke per 1,00,000 adult people in Bangladesh. Accordingly, around 9,00,000 people suffer from stroke, out of an approximate 100 million adult population. Of them, 25-30 per cent become wheelchair bound. Thus, at least 2,50,000 people need wheelchairs every year,” he added.
“Apart from the stroke patients, a good number of head and spinal cord injured patients also become disable and they may also need the wheelchairs,” he added.
According to the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedic Rehabilitation, the number of patients is gradually increasing in the hospital. A total of 1,55,303 patients were treated in the hospital in 2015. The number reached 2,03,034 in 2019.
Of them, 31,315 people had to go to the operation theatre to treat their wounds. The number of patients who need operation in 2015 was around 27,920.
NITOR director Dr Md Abdul Gani Mollah, said, “Among patients who need operation, 1-5 per cent experience the loss of both legs. They need wheelchairs. People who are around 80 years of age, many of them need a wheelchair after such an operation.”
The Passengers Welfare Association claimed that 6,800 individuals were injured in 2020 only due to road accidents.
As the average market price of a wheelchair is around Tk 5,000 at the retailers’ shops, the overall market size is thus estimated at around Tk 125 crore annually against the demand of more than 2,50,000 wheelchairs across the country.
Why we don’t have domestic production
Nasir Uddin, an ortho surgical equipment importer and wholesaler, tried to establish a factory for producing wheelchairs locally, but he finally gave up due to various complexities.
In reply to a question, he told The Business Post, “There is no duty or VAT on wheelchair import while there is 30-60 per cent duty on raw materials import. So, local production won’t be viable in Bangladesh as it will be costlier than the imported finished wheelchairs.”
How many people with disabilities are there in Bangladesh?
More than seven years after passage of the Rights and Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2013, the answer to this question is still ambiguous.
The Department of Social Services (DSS) has been conducting a disability detection survey since 2013 and identified 21,43,357 people with disabilities all over the country till February 3, 2021. It is around 1.19 per cent of the total population.
Experts say the data does not reflect the exact number of people with disabilities in the country. There are also reliability and validity issues with the data, they added.
Of the total, 13,16,894 are male which is 61 per cent of the total population, and 8,23,855 are female, which amounts to 38 per cent. Transgender people with disabilities account for one per cent of the total population, with the number being 2,608. The DSS identified 4,65,693 children with disabilities, 21.72 per cent of the total population.
Around 20 per cent of all the people with disabilities live in disaster-prone districts such as Bhola, Jhalakathi, Barguna, Patuakhali, Pirojpur, Feni, Noakhali, Chattogram, Laxmipur, Cox’s Bazar, Bagerhat, Khulna and Satkhira.
The highest number of people with disabilities has been identified in Cumilla district while the lowest number has been reported in the districts of Chittagong Hill Tracts.
There are 5,972 disabled people in Bandarban district which is the lowest concentration of disability among all the districts. Khagrachhari (12,364) and Rangamati (9,930) are also among the districts with the lowest number of persons with disabilities.
According to the World Report on Disability published in 2011 by the WHO, there were around 16 million people with disabilities in Bangladesh. The Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HES) conducted by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics in 2010 said 9.1 per cent of the country’s total population have some sort of disability.
The HES was also based on functional limitations of the disabled people and followed globally recognised Washington Group Questions for detecting disability.
