KATHMANDU, Dec. 4 -- Nepal, which has around 3 percent of its population of 27 million who are considered persons with disabilities (PWDs), has been lagging behind other countries in ensuring their rights and privileges.

This stark reality has been highlighted during the observation of the 23rd International Day of Persons with Disabilities on Wednesday as Nepal's PWDs demanded access to new technology to enjoy life despite some form of physical defects.

Appropriately, this year's theme of the International Day for PWDs is "Sustainable Development: The Promise of Technology." But unfortunately, for Nepal's PWDs, they still lack easy access to technical devices and equipment that could contribute to their living a normal life.

"We have been struggling to seek our basic rights and to have minimum facilities in health, education and employment so that we can live independently. As of now, we are dependent on others for our daily activities," Manish Prasai, program manager of the National Federation of the Disabled Nepal (NFDN), told Xinhua on Wednesday.

Prasai himself uses a wheelchair since the age of two due to polio.

Among Nepal's PWDs are paraplegics, deaf, blind or near blind, or those with mental or cognitive disabilities.

"Aside from wheelchairs and walkers, which you can find only in urban areas, there are no other gadgets or equipment that can assist PWDs in coping with their daily lives. And we are helpless, " Prasai said.

According to Prasai, although the Nepali government is undertaking measures to help PWDs, it is the non-government organizations (NGOs) and civic groups that are mostly assisting PWDs in the country. But this assistance is limited in cities while the PWDs in the countryside are left to their own devices.

In compliance with United Nations covenants, infrastructure in cities, such as roads, sidewalks and buildings are wheelchair- friendly. But for other forms of disability, there are no special facilities, Prasai said.

While most big buildings, parking lots, malls or hospitals have emergency alarms, they are usually not equipped with powerful flashlights that can help the deaf or those with hearing deficiency find emergency exits. There are also no Braille codes on the roads that can be detected through sticks carried by blind people. There is no special software in computers that the PWDs, particularly those with impaired vision, can use.

Rashmi Bajracharya, 32, is a blind woman who uses a cane to move around. Although she feels confident while walking with a cane, there is nothing more that she can do in order to do away with the monotony of her life.

Bajracharya told Xinhua that she loves to communicate with other people but can only say "hello" or "good bye" to friends and relatives through her mobile phone. "I cannot use computers or the Internet," she lamented.

Like her, hundreds of other blind people in Nepal are forced to depend on someone else for reading or writing because they don't have access to Braille education.

According to NFDN, there are about 200,000 visually-impaired people in Nepal.

Nepal has ratified the 2006 Convention on the Rights of the Disabled Persons but has still not fully implemented the treaty.

The Ministry for Women, Children and Social Welfare, however, has been issuing special "blue cards" to PWDs through which they can get 300 Nepali rupees (3 U.S. dollars) as social security allowance.

But 18-year-old Gita Bhusal, who lives in the Disabled Rehabilitation Center north of the capital, said that allowance is not enough.

Bhusal, who moves in a wheelchair, is studying Grade 8. She participated in a program during the PWD Day celebration in Kathmandu. She is still hopeful that after finishing her studies she could find employment and earn a living by herself.

PWDs in Nepal are asking the government to do more in providing them with adequate facilities and equipment, including access to the Internet and other technological advances, so that they can become useful and productive members of society.