Rep. Lee: "Came for healing but cannot use the restroom"
Accessibility facilities for people with disabilities to be allowed at healing farms
Representative sponsor of the "Farmland Act amendment" to ease regulations
Representative Lee Gaeho.
While "healing agriculture," which uses rural resources to heal both body and mind, is gaining attention as an alternative form of social care, a longstanding contradiction in which the installation of accessibility facilities for people with disabilities on farmland has been treated as illegal due to farmland regulations is now expected to be resolved soon.
Rep. Lee Gaeho of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee who represents Damyang, Hampyeong, Yeonggwang, and Jangseong in South Jeolla Province, on the 25th sponsored a partial amendment to the Farmland Act that would allow the installation of essential auxiliary facilities such as accessible restrooms and wheelchair ramps at certified healing agriculture facilities.
In recent years, healing agriculture has drawn attention as a new welfare model that improves the physical and mental health of vulnerable groups such as people with developmental disabilities and older adults. The Lee Jaemyung administration has also adopted it as a national policy task to encourage the social contribution of rural communities, but there is growing criticism that strict farmland regulations are instead becoming an obstacle to welfare.
Because most healing farms are located on "farmland" where construction activities are strictly limited under current law, it is in practice nearly impossible to install facilities that are essential for visitors with disabilities, such as accessible restrooms, wheelchair ramps, and braille guidance blocks.
As a result, farm operators have had to risk being punished for "illegal conversion of farmland" even when they install accessibility facilities for people with disabilities, and visitors with disabilities have been left in a "blind spot for human rights" where it is difficult even to address basic physiological needs.
The amendment bill sponsored by Rep. Lee clearly establishes a legal basis to allow, only for certified healing agriculture facilities, the installation of healing agriculture facilities or auxiliary facilities for people with disabilities through permits for temporary use of farmland for other purposes.
Rep. Lee stated, "These are administrative regulations that turn the very sites visited for healing into a welfare blind spot where people cannot even address their basic physiological needs," adding, "We must no longer allow the value of universal welfare for vulnerable groups to be undermined by institutional justifications for preserving farmland."
He went on to say, "This amendment will not only practically guarantee the right to mobility and safety for people with disabilities, but will also be a 'warm regulatory innovation for people's livelihoods' that helps farm operators escape legal uncertainty and provide high-quality healing services."
Meanwhile, lawmakers Lim Okyung, Cho Incheol, Lee Kangil, Jeon Jinsook, Soh Byunghoon, Uh Kigoo, Park Soohyun, An Dogeol, and Jung Jinwook joined as co-sponsors of the amendment, uniting around the goal of strengthening universal welfare.
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