Indonesia has ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, followed by the endorsement of the Law on Disabled Persons.
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Indonesia has ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, followed by the endorsement of the Law on Disabled Persons. However, stigmatization and discrimination have left them behind in development.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Inclusive development has remained a major task for the Indonesian nation. Despite the existence of Law No. 8/2016 on Disabled Persons, the disabled still experience stigmatization and discrimination in various aspects of life.
Based on the Statistics Indonesia (BPS) Inter-census Population Survey 2015, 21.84 million of the total population, or 8.56 percent, are people living with disabilities. The 2018 Basic Health Research recorded that 3.3 percent of children (aged 5-17) have disabilities. Owing to different factors, including difficult access education, most disabled children have been deprived of schooling.
The 2017 National Socioeconomic Survey shows that 5.14 percent of disabled children aged 7-17 do not attend or have never attended school.
UNICEF’s 2016 data shows that 67 percent of disabled children in Indonesia are not enrolled in school. This is supported by the 2016 National Workforce Survey, which shows that 45.74 percent of disabled children have never attended or did not graduate elementary school. The 2017 National Socioeconomic Survey shows that 5.14 percent of disabled children aged 7-17 do not attend or have never attended school.
“In Indonesia, as in many developing countries, disabled people have limited access to education, which makes it difficult for them to access economic resources, so they live in a more impoverished state than citizens that do not have disabilities,” Bahrul Fuad, Disability and Social Inclusion Consultant of Program Peduli (care program), told Kompas over the weekend in Jakarta.
Inclusive education still fell far short of expectations. For mentally disabled people, for instance, children with Down syndrome (DS) were almost always denied admission to public school, even state-run schools. “If enrolling children are found out to have DS, the school in question doesn’t actually reject them directly, but ask their parents to present the results of an IQ test,” said Dewi Tjakrawinata, founder of Yayasan Peduli Sindroma Down Indonesia (Yapesdi), a the Indonesia Down Syndrome Care Foundation.
Job access
Their generally low education in turn means that disabled people have difficulty accessing jobs and are stuck in the poverty circle. Even disabled people who are educated and skilled do not always find it easy to get jobs. People with physical disabilities are often considered incapable of doing jobs that able-bodied people can do.
A number of disabled people that Kompas interviewed revealed how difficult it was for them to find jobs suitable for them, whether as civil servants or private employees. They had narrow opportunities and quotas.
Even when opportunities are opened to them, disabled people have to make an extra effort to be recruited as civil servants or employees. Passing the selection process doesn’t mean that they will get the jobs they want.
Mahreta Maha, 38, a law graduate of Atma Jaya University Jakarta who has vision impairment, for example, applied for a job as a permanent employee at a state-owned enterprise (BUMN). However, Mahreta was only accepted as a part-time contract worker at the BUMN’s call center. “I applied when the Human Capital Indonesia Forum (FHCI) held BUMN entry tests for disabled persons,” she said.
Mahreta’s experience, said Indonesian Disabled Women’s Association chair Maulani Rotinsulu, indicated that the government’s policy for the disabled was half-hearted. “When the BUMNs offered vacancies to disabled people through the FHCI, only the recruitment process was prepared. But the BUMNs were not prepared to interact with prospective workers,” said Maulani.
The Disabled Persons Law obligates that disabled people comprise 2 percent of all employees at state-owned enterprises. The quota is 1 percent for private companies.
Many disabled people cannot live independently because they cannot find jobs, a condition which is noticeable in Surabaya. The city’s Social Affairs Agency distributes daily meals for around 9,500 disabled persons who are unemployed.
Neglect is still common for children with disabilities in Surabaya, where many families abandon their disabled children on the streets. “They are found by the Surabaya Public Order Officers (Satpol PP) and are taken to the Kalijudan Social House, where they receive skills training so they can be independent,” said Kalijudan technical operations head Nanik Winarsih.
Accessible facilities and infrastructure remain minimally available. Most public facilities like sidewalks, office buildings and even ATM booths do not have ramps to provide disability access.
The same condition is also found in Jakarta.
Executive chairman Slamet Triadi of the Indonesian Disabled Persons Association’s Banjarmasin branch continues to find that yellow guiding blocks to help disabled people navigate are still obstructed by trees in Banjarmasin. The same condition is also found in Jakarta.
Social Rehabilitation director-general Edi Suharto at the Social Affairs Ministry acknowledged that the majority of disabled people in Indonesia were still unable to access identity card services because their data had not been recorded. Consequently, many disabled people were neglected and mistreated.He said that disability inclusive development as stipulated in the Disabled Persons Law stipulated that development provide the widest possible opportunities for disabled people, including in its planning, implementation and evaluation. (RWN/SYA/COK/FRD/JOL/JUM/SON)