SEOUL, South Korea – Banging their red-and-white canes on the ground, dozens of visually impaired South Koreans are protesting daily under a bridge in Seoul against a court decision they say robs them of one of the few ways they can make a living: working as masseurs.
In a decision last month, the Constitutional Court ruled that a law granting massage licenses only to the visually impaired was discriminatory against others who wanted to practice the trade.
The decision legalizes all massage parlors, and visually impaired masseurs fear the competition will drive them out of business.
The May 25 ruling has drawn outrage and daily protests from visually impaired massage therapists, who have pressed for the government to step in. One masseur committed suicide by jumping from a building over the weekend in an apparent protest, and authorities fished other protesters out of a river after they dove in during a demonstration earlier this week in Seoul.
“What else can we do other than working as masseuses?” asked Yun Kyung-ok, 39, who has participated in the daily protests along the Han River that runs through Seoul.
On Wednesday, the crowd numbered about 150. But a reported 5,000 visually impaired and their supporters attended a memorial demonstration for the dead masseur earlier this week.
The massage law was passed in 1963 – formalizing a practice in place since 1913 under Japanese colonial rule – to provide the visually impaired with a way to make a living in South Korea, where the government has been historically reluctant to provide social services.
More than 6,800 visually impaired masseurs are now registered across the country, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Despite the law, hundreds of other salons employing sighted masseurs offer “sports massage” to get around the rule.
The main opposition Grand National Party has also called on the government to help the visually impaired in light of the court ruling, but asked for patience as it works out a way to help find them jobs. The ruling Uri Party said it was reserving official comment for now.
Son Ki-taek, one of the petitioners in the court challenge to the massage law and head of the Korea Whole Person Healing Theological Seminary, said he wasn’t trying to put the visually impaired out of business, but was seeking to prevent sighted masseurs from being targeted as criminals.
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