[Opinion] Unscrupulous Pretend-Disabled

We often see disabled people beg for money sitting on the streets or playing some musical instruments in a subway. Not a few people take pity on them and put some coins and bills inside their baskets. Once I saw a young man with paralyzed limbs begging for money in a sitting-only bus. Then I happened to get off the same stop where he got off. As soon as the bus left, the man took a swift look around and walked off with his two feet. It’s because an unscrupulous pretend-disabled like him that we often give suspicious looks to the real disabled and become reluctant to help them.

▷It is required by the law that government organizations and businesses arrange a parking place for the disabled in the shortest distance from the gate. And those violating the disabled-only rule have to pay 100,000 won in fines. For the last three years, however, there were only 3,700 cases of violation. Considering people often send letters of complaints to newspapers about selfish people who sneak into the place prepared for the disabled, it seems that only a small portion of violators get caught. For some on the run for business, they might think it is okay just for a short time. But at that very short time, a disabled person could go through trouble finding no place to park.

▷Korea is an underdeveloped country when it comes to welfare for the disabled. Having gone through the development-first era that puts priorities on competitiveness and efficiency, we grow less and less thoughtful of the weak and the marginalized. According to a survey by an organization for the disabled, of 19 universities, only 32.4% have facilities for the disabled in place. A female college student even filed a lawsuit against the university where she attended, saying she could not enter classrooms in her wheelchair. And it still happens that a disabled person falls from a lift in a subway station and gets killed, a kind of accident only occurring in underdeveloped countries.

▷The welfare system has improved in recent years. The seriously disabled are now subject to 40 kinds of benefits – the government provide living subsidies, send their children to school, exempt them from vehicle taxes and highway tolls. Sadly, however, some 5,000 shameless people recently got caught while pretending disabled to get the benefits. Of the criminals, many were aiming to get vehicle-related benefits. Using fake IDs that are supposed to be issued to the disabled, they ran on cheap liquid petroleum gas, passed highway without paying tolls and parked their cars in disabled-only spots. Pity them for absence of conscience.

Hwang Ho-taek, Editorial Writer hthwang@donga.com