They also called for creating opportunities to help disabled persons become useful members of the society.

"Proper employment could turn the disabled from burden to wealth", said the speakers.

They said a massive awareness campaign is needed to eliminate negative attitude towards them.

The national seminar on 'Engagement of women with disabilities into development' was organised by Bangladesh Protibandi Kalyan Samity (BPKS) at LGED seminar hall.

Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Moudud Ahmed inaugurated the seminar presided over by Md Saiful Islam, chairman of BPKS.

Ashrafun Nahar Mishti, member-secretary of Women With Disabilities (WWD) and coordinator of Asia-Pacific Women Interact Networking (AP-WIN) presented the keynote paper.

Secretary of social welfare ministry MA Jabbar, Secretary of primary and mass education division Prof Dr Tahmina Hussain, Vice-Principal of Dhaka Deaf High School Masuda Akhtar and a human rights activist Masuda Banu spoke on the occasion.

Moudud Ahmed said the government is trying to engage disabled persons into mainstream of development.

Md Shahidul Hasan, LGED chief engineer, said they are planning to engage disabled women in their projects.

The speakers said disabled persons specially women are left alone in every aspect of life like including education, health and employment.

They said disabled persons are capable of doing many things like normal beings if they are helped and properly trained.

But family members take them as burden. They do not pay much attention to educate or empower them, the speakers added.

Three disabled women- Anjuman Ara Begum, Antora Ahmed and Farzana Taleb Liza, also spoke at the seminar.

They said if family members support the disabled they could do almost any job.

But the society shows negative attitude towards them, they lamented.