JAKARTA (ILO News) - The ILO in collaboration with the National Commission for Disability (KND) jointly launched the ILO’s report titled “Mapping of Workers with Disabilities in the Labour Market in Indonesia: Policy Suggestions and Recommendations” on 8 February, in conjunction with the signing of the Declaration of Joint Commitment between the ILO and KND to promote equal employment opportunity and decent work for people with disabilities.

The report aims to provide an overview of employment for workers with disabilities from its first publication in 2017, describing the progress that has been made and to analyse the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on workers with disabilities. People with disabilities has already had significant challenges and obstacles in getting access to information, health, transportation, infrastructure as well as jobs that are worsen in time of the COVID-19.

The report reveals that women in general have greater prevalence of disabilities (55.6% in 2020). Higher education has not fully guaranteed access to work for persons with disabilities in urban areas, and those in rural areas work in sectors that do not require higher education. However, 70-80 percent of people with disabilities only graduate from primary school, twice as big as non-disabled people.

The report also finds an increasing trend to the proportion of persons with disabilities who are self-employed from from 54.66 percent in 2017 to 58.25 percent in 2020. The proportion of persons with disabilities who are self-employed is 1.5 times higher compared to non-disabled persons.

“This is an indication that people with disabilities are forced to open their own businesses because it is difficult to work and there are still few alternative jobs that can be done,” said said Tendy Gunawan, ILO’s programme officer for inclusive workplace, who is also the co-author of the report.

The majority of people with disabilities work in the informal sector with an increased percentage during the pandemic. Meanwhile, 55.5 percent of the unemployed with severe disabilities are between 15 to 34 years old. The same trend also applies for people with mild disabilities.

COVID-19 has the same impact on the incomes of most workers in Indonesia, the negative impact on workers with disabilities is slightly greater than for workers without disabilities.

The report concludes with seven policy suggestions and recommendations:

• Making programmes and policies based on the concept of human rights approach of disability inclusion, in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
• The importance of equalizing concept/definition and measurements as the basis for making inclusive policies and programmes for persons with disabilities.
• Empowerment programme specializing women with disabilities as beneficiaries,
• Improving access to secondary and tertiary education, and skills training to provide greater opportunities for decent work.
• Intersection of social protection programmes for the elderly and persons with disabilities need further attention and scrutiny.
• Accommodating the increasing trend of self-employed persons with disabilities and the opportunity to work and be productive online.
• The importance of support for third parties’ roles who can bridge employers (companies) and job seekers with disabilities.