Eliminating Poverty and Inequality for Persons with Disabilities in Banda Aceh

For instance, the children with disabilities are more likely will not attend school, this condition has created a situation where only people who were born without disabilities have th[r]

Eliminating Poverty and Inequality for Persons

with Disabilities in Banda Aceh

Working Paper

BY Irna Susrianti Puteri Handika

Abstract

This research examines the root of poverty and inequality experienced by persons with disabilities (PwDs), discusses the changes in policy and perception on PwDs before and after 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami and analyze the statutory coherence on the policy implementation Determination of the sample is done by purposive sampling which is from the whole population was taken by several respondents and informants expected to represent the whole population The location of the research is

in Banda Aceh concerning the condition after tsunami disaster in 2004 that there were many international organizations came to this town and did disability rights advocacy to the government and society which

is then expected has brought the changes in solidarity and accountability culture Data have been collected from archives, interviews, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and published reports and articles The research shows that the root of disability inequality started from inequality in opportunity that exclude majority of those people to access quality education and healthcare Even though there is a change in disability right policy in Aceh, but it has not been fully implemented in the city level that leads

to the difficulty of PwDs to access decent job and employment Furthermore, the research finding is used

in advocacy to challenge the local government in implementing inclusive employment that is affiliated with education, vocational training and human settlement by stressing dignity and inclusion in order to reach equality The advocacy has led to the establishment inclusive employment policy which is stated in Banda Aceh Mayor Regulation No 1 of 2019 concerning the fulfilment of the rights of persons with disabilities in obtaining decent work Moreover, starting this year, women with disabilities are involved in development planning in Consensus of Action Female Plan in Banda Aceh

Contents

1 INTRODUCTION 4

1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY 4

1.2 RATIONALE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY 5

1.3 METHODOLOGY 5

2 FRAMEWORK FOR DISABILITY INCLUSION IN DEVELOPMENT 6

2.1 UNCRPD 6

2.2 NATIONAL LAW 7

2.3 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGS) 7

3 PARADIGM AND STIGMA ON PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES 8

4 OVERVIEW OF PERSONS WITH DISABIITIES’ CONDITION IN INDONESIA 10

4.1 EDUCATION 12

4.2 HEALTHCARE 13

4.3 EMPLOYMENT 15

4.4 SOCIAL PROTECTION 16

5 FINDINGS THROUGH DISABILITY PERSPECIVE IN ACEH 17

5.1 DECENT WORK FOR PERSON WITH DISABILITIES 17

5.2 TRANSPORTATION AND BUILDING ACCESSIBILITY 20

5.2 THE INVOLVEMENT OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES IN DEVELOPMENT PLANNING 22

6 INITIATIVE 23

7 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 25

8 REFERENCE 26

to its own regional income While Indonesia has achieved some noteworthy development strides in recent years, many barriers to the achievement of the SDGs still remain, particularly in relation to ending poverty (Goal 1) achieving decent work (goal 8) and reducing inequality (goal 10) The government’s embrace of market liberalisation and foreign trade and investment in the past two decades has eroded labour conditions, and escalated social and economic inequalities, resulting in the government’s failure to deliver equitable benefits to the majority of people, persons with disabilities remain deprived of equitable access

to resources and opportunities The development that only benefits the rich and influential people and leave the marginalized group behind has caused the difficulties to reach efficiency in society One of the most marginalized group in Indonesia is persons with disabilities, the majority of persons with disabilities

in Indonesia are poor and lack of skills and capacity to work Many PwDs often end up working in the informal sector with little or no social protection, and are denied equal participation in decision-making processes Similarly, the impacts of social and economic inequality are acutely experienced by women with disabilities, this group experience double discrimination, by gender and by disability The specific needs of women with disabilities must be recognized and addressed in planning, implementing, and monitoring the SDGs

The root of inequality experienced by persons with disabilities has started from inequality of opportunity excluding them to access most of public goods For instance, the children with disabilities are more likely will not attend school, this condition has created a situation where only people who were born without disabilities have the opportunity to acquire proper education and decent job while the disabled people will depend their life on family and government funds

In 2006, United Nation promote the fulfillment of the rights of person with disabilities by establishing UNCRPD with human right based approach Indonesia finally passing it in national Law in 2011 and

currently on the way to improve public policy and regulation related to the accessibility of PwDs in all sectors of life However, the strategies that have been implemented are still using the charity approach

As a consequence, the large gap of social and economic inequality between persons with disabilities and persons without disabilities still remains until presently

1.2 RATIONALE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

Public policy has a big role in shaping public opinion and the other way around Therefore, it is important

to boost both development policy and public opinion in order to challenge the current thinking so that the acceleration in the fulfillment of disability rights will increase more rapidly The absence of justice has led to condition where the government needs to immediately apply the effective public policy In this case, monitoring and evaluation on the existing government programs and impact on poverty and equality

is very crucial in order to understand the root of the problem in the implemented government programs and analyze the effective methods to improve strategies using human right approach

This report focuses on persons with disabilities (mobility disabled, visually disabled, speech difficulties as well as hearing impaired) in Indonesia and Aceh region related to decent work, minimum wage, access to building and public transportation Since Aceh government has agreed upon the implementation of SDGs,

it is important to do review and monitoring on the implementation and finally do advocacy on policy and programs that support equality for everybody and leave no one behind

The result of the research is used as advocacy tools to the local government in Aceh in order to initiate policy change, to increase people’s awareness about disability rights, and to arrange FGDs between government and civil society organizations Aceh is chosen as the advocacy activity location because Aceh

is the sixth poorest region in Indonesia and first in Sumatera, yet recent development focus has been on infrastructure development rather than the empowerment of marginalised groups Besides, Aceh experienced long-term conflict with Indonesia and struck by Indian Ocean tsunami disaster in 2004 that increases the number of persons with disabilities in this province

1.3 METHODOLOGY

Determination of the sample is done by purposive sampling which is from the whole population was taken

by several respondents and informants expected to represent the whole population The location of the research is in Banda Aceh concerning the condition after tsunami disaster in 2004 that there were many international organizations came to this town and did disability rights advocacy to the government and society which is then expected has brought the changes in solidarity and accountability culture Data have

been collected from archives, interviews, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and published reports and articles In order to get the data and information, workshops, FGDs and interviews were held in Banda Aceh, Aceh Besar and Pidie From the activities, we gathered new information on problems and obstacles encountered by persons with disabilities, women and labor; aspirations; and solutions proposed by the people The information was given to the government with the intention to be implemented for the following year regional planning (RKA)

In terms of influencing policy and regulation using “bottom-up” approach, education and workshop for civil society have been done to spread the idea, those people who attend the workshop will share the knowledge with their family, friends and community, this method will develop the understanding of civil society, not only for the persons with disability as the target of certain development policy but also for the persons without disability to accept and support PwDs as a part of the community Furthermore, in terms of influencing development policy using "top-down" approach, advocacy and cross-sector focused group discussion will be required to identify the most innovative and effective policies and practices to support accessibility, employment, and vocational training for persons with disabilities By advancing the understanding of the policy makers in human right approach, the regulatory decision-making and policy has a higher chance to be improved

2 FRAMEWORK FOR DISABILITY INCLUSION IN DEVELOPMENT

2.1 UNCRPD

Indonesia government has ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Person with Disability since 2011, and had created subsequent est laws and policies to meet their obligations under UNCRP This shows the intention of the government to fulfill and meeting their rights of persons with disabilities in Indonesia However, actual progress on the ground has been slow as many PwDs and especially women with disability continues to have limited access to education, healthcare, jobs, public facilities and public transportation In addition to that the majority of PwDs live in poverty due to charity-based approach so this approach should be shifting to a right-based approach for the development of persons with disabilities The lack of participation of women and PwDs in policy and decision-making process leads to poor accountability and ineffective development planning Our research in Aceh has found that the system provided has not been able to meet the needs of disabled people And while women and men have equal right to economic participation, the reality is that women and especially women with disability

encounters complex problems caused by strong social norms and patriarchy Women continue to face gender pay gap if they work in informal sector and hardly get the promotion to achieve important position both in the formal and informal sector Workers in Aceh still does not receive full social protection whether it is related to minimum wage, healthcare and safe and secure working environment

2.2 NATIONAL LAW

After the ratification of UNCRPD in 2011, Indonesian government regulates and protects the rights of persons with disabilities by issuing Law Number 8 of 2016 concerning Persons with Disabilities which states that persons with disabilities are those who experience long-term physical, intellectual, mental, and / or sensory limitations in interacting with the environment and may experience obstacles and difficulties to participate fully and effectively with other citizens based on equal rights

Although Law No 8/ 2016 has mentioned the equal opportunities (Article 1 paragraph 2) for persons with and without disabilities, the changes in employment policies still cannot be felt by persons with disabilities Many workplaces have not yet accommodated the needs of persons with disabilities, the offices still lack of accessibility and there is no availability of elevator, ramps, braille technology devices, hearing aids, etc The provision of facilities for persons with disabilities is still considered as an expensive additional cost in the company The lack of monitoring and evaluation by the government make the private sectors and even the public sectors do not implement this policy This condition ultimately prevents persons with disabilities from accessing employment and developing their potential

2.3 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGS)

Indonesia has reportedly made some achievement in several of the targets under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Under achieving universal primary education of the MDGs, Indonesia has implemented basic 9-year education in Indonesia In 2011, the literacy rate for female reached 98.75% and male literacy rate was 98.80% aged 15-24 years In addition, the rate incident for tuberculosis has decreased from 343 (1990) to 189 cases per 100,000 people in a year (BAPPENAS, 2011) Despite many successes, Indonesia is still facing many problems in poverty, inequality, climate change, achieving decent work and the progress has been uneven across the regions of Indonesia that millions of people are still being left behind especially the poorest and vulnerable people

In order to strengthen the development, the national government has embraced and commit to implement SDGs in Indonesia The first ratification of SDGs in Indonesian national law begun in 2017 when the president enacted it in Presidential Law no 59 of 2017 regarding the implementation of sustainable

development goals in Indonesia which is ratified in national action planning document contained with the planning of national programs for 5 years and actions related to achieving SDGs This national action planning was mobilized all to the provincial level and the document is compiled by the local development planning agency However, the Action Plan are still missing a few important aspects For example when discussing the inclusive education and economic growth, there is an absence of the mention of disability issues Therefore, while there is an important role of local and national organization in order to tackle this issue and guarantee that development planning is in line with SDGs by doing advocacy to the government using international agenda and law to push the local decision maker to implement new policy and regulation However, the implementation of the SDGs has become the main attention of the current government It has also created new challenge to ensure inclusiveness in all aspects Local culture still remains a challenge when it comes to gender and diversity While some local government is still not very familiar with the concept that makes the implementation of programs to achieve SDGs ineffective

If we talk about the implementation of SDGs in government programs, every provinces has a different main target that is the focus of the provincial governments In Aceh, the Aceh government through BAPPEDA Aceh (Aceh Regional Development Planning Agency) has been collaborating with a local NGO named Flower Aceh to arrange Rencana Aksi Daerah Aceh (Aceh Regional Action Plan) that will hopefully set the provincial agenda of the SDGs to be more systematic and detailed, and most importantly, representing the intention of civil society because the civil societies in Aceh has implemented several public discussion that involved the representative of the local organizations that focus on women, youth and persons with disabilities

3 STEREOTYPES AND STIGMA ON PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

WHO (World Health Organization) states that 15% of the world's population are persons with disabilities and around 80% of them are in developing countries Persons with disabilities are considered as second class people in Indonesia They often experience discrimination both in their family and community because of stereotypes, prejudice, and stigma

Many people in Indonesia assume that persons with disabilities are a group of sick and unhealthy people For a long time, there is a statement to be physically and mentally healthy for job requirement that automatically exclude PwDs because they are considered unhealthy In their community, PwDs are viewed

as people that need to be pitied and impossible to live independently because of the stigma that they are

incapable in doing any job so that their lives are very dependent on family Furthermore, children who are born with some sort of disabilities are considered as a curse caused by their parents’ sin that make the parents usually hide their children from surrounding community All the obstacles encountered by persons with disabilities contribute to the feeling of inferiority of PwDs

All the stereotypes, prejudice, and stigma lead to the discrimination and exclusion experienced by persons with disabilities The discrimination of PwDs does not only take place in society but also in development planning and decision making The voice and aspiration of PwDs are rarely taken into account, most of development programs do not include the disability aspects in the planning and implementation This group are continuously to be marginalized and excluded from development

When tsunami disaster happened in 2004, persons with disabilities suffered the worst in the tragedy because there were no specific laws regarding natural disaster management and no specific guidelines and/or regulations related to persons with disabilities and natural disasters prior to the tsunami

According to Department of Social Affairs, Department of Education, and Department of Health, the status

of PwDs before the tsunami remains unknown, therefore, it is very difficult to get the information about the survival rate of PwDs in the disaster and the disability statistics caused by tsunami can be concluded

as an estimation and unreliable However, some evidence indicates that PwDs experinced worse than PwoDs For instance, according to the explanation of Indonesia Society for the Care for Children with Disabilities (YPAC), this institution had schools in two different areas in Banda Aceh Even though some teachers were affected, the children with disabilities attending the schools were most affected The number of students who are still missing and unaccounted for are around half of 145 of total students Learning from the experience, many international organization that came to Indonesia to help the recovery process of tsunami disaster in Aceh did the advocacy to the government and society regarding the rights of persons with disabilities This action of course has resulted a change of paradigm towards persons with disabilities According to Mrs Aflinda, a female disability activist, there is a paradigm change

in society towards person with disabilities and it is a result of the involvement of international organization

in Aceh after tsunami Many disability organizations encourage local government to include PwDs in development planning, especially in disaster risk management One of these organizations, namely Handicap International even employ several persons with disabilities, this action prove that in an accommodating environment, PwDs are able to do a good job without any difficulty This organization was actively doing advocacy to the government and local community in fulfilling the rights of persons with

disabilities Furthermore, currently many DPO exist in Aceh and actively expressing their aspiration in development planning and it leads to the change in policy in Banda Aceh

A minor change in paradigm and stigma of course does not automatically change the economic condition

of persons with disabilities, there are still many things that have to be done in order to put all the policy into practice Many development programs are still not accessible for PwDs and in several focus group discussions the government representatives admitted that their programs have not yet accommodate the needs of PwDs Even though there is a policy ensuring the rights of PwDs in employment, but in reality it

is still very difficult to be implemented because those people are still excluded from education and healthcare scheme Moreover, the change in paradigm and stigma only happen in big cities, people who live in rural area still have the same stigma toward PwDs

4 OVERVIEW OF PERSONS WITH DISABIITIES’ CONDITION IN INDONESIA

As a developing country, Indonesia has many protracted problems that are needed to be eradicated from the roots Otherwise, this problem will get worse in the future and endanger the economic and political situation even more One of many problems that needs to be solved is high level of inequality (both social and economic) which are being experienced by people in Indonesia for the last few years The root cause

of inequality starts from the inequality in opportunity that exclude majority of people their access education and healthcare This condition is compounded by ineffective redistributive policy that has benefited the rich more than the poor as the result of pro-growth strategy and trickle down neo-liberal economic policies which has only lead to an increase of inequality The government has provided oil subsidies for a long time, but this program has little advantage in reducing poverty Finally in 2015, the government decreased the subsidy and shifted the fund to infrastructure with the expectation that this policy will decrease inequality in Indonesia

Figure 1 Budget Distribution (in Trillions of Rupiah)

Source: Ministry of Finance1

Country’s economic growth has been gone to the wealthiest 20% of Indonesian society, leaving behind the 80% of the population While Indonesia’s economic growth has certainly led to some decline in unemployment and poverty, the greater impact of growth are only felt by the rich because most Indonesian people work in small-medium sector which has hardly been influenced by the economic growth High inequality causes social rigidity, slow rates of social mobility, weakening social stability, can lead political and civil unrests that can threaten the development and the integrity of a country.2 Even though there are some factors affecting income inequality, such as the different skills and expertise, government’s fiscal, labour and industrial policies and regulation does play important role in addressing and diminishing the roots of inequality

Inequality in Indonesia covers many aspects based on gender, religious ideology, ethnicity, and disability One of the most marginalized group in Indonesia is persons with disabilities This group has low level of employment and most likely to live below poverty line compared with their non-disabled peers This condition is the result of the fact that Indonesian development planning is still using a charity-based approach that may overlook the real needs and rights of PwDs Therefore, it leads to situation where PwDs have difficulties accessing education, health care, social protection and employment Some research on employment for persons with disabilities only discuss the working status without classifying the jobs into decent jobs and non-decent jobs, it may give the wrong indication and impression when people only see the data without seeing the real condition in society

4.1 EDUCATION

Children from the poor families are more likely to have fewer chances to obtain the education at high level Furthermore, the quality of education is not equal Good and high-quality school and university will usually cost people a lot of money, leading to situations where only children who are born in wealthy family will have the opportunity to proper education Moreover, children with disabilities who are born

in a poor family even more difficult to access education, those children are being excluded because of their family economic condition and because of their disabilities

The government's effort in improving education facilities has a positive impact on school enrolment rates that continued to rise to almost 100% in 2017 as shown on the data from Indonesian Central Bureau of Statistics However, the education subsidies is only effective for providing the education until secondary high school (9-year education program) The high level of poverty will mean that many children will not continue their education to a higher level (university) As a matter of fact, only some of them will attend high school while others choose to work as manual labors because of poverty Moreover, the following graph indicates that only around 25% of total potential students (age 19-24) continue their education to university Therefore only this percentage of young adults have the advantages to compete in labor market as the consequence of high educational attainment

Figure 2 School Enrolment Percentage

Source: Indonesian Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) 3

The data provided does not distinguish between the enrolment of children with disabilities and children without disabilities make it difficult to know the exact enrolment rate for PwDs However, the cencus on PwDs in 2012 shows a low level of educational attainment of PwDs

Table 1 Highest Educational Attainment for PwDs with Age of Onset under Age 18, SNSAP-PWD, 2012

Low Disability High Disability Did not

Primary Secondary Above

secondary

Source: Persons with Disabilities in Indonesia: Empirical Facts and Implications for Social Protection Policies 4

The data shows that only 5.2% of PwDs with low disability and 1.07% of PwDs with high disability attend above secondary education It is stated in the Constitution that all persons with disabilities have the right

to attend education and the government has discussed and enact inclusive education on education policy, but the implementation of the policy is still very far from the ideal condition Many schools reject children with disabilities because the school building and the teacher cannot accommodate the needs of children with disabilities, in the end, those children will be put in special schools where the children hardly learn something useful to help their career or to continue their study in the future, only very few children attend the general school with other children, normally, those children were born in wealthy family whose parents can afford send their children to private schools

4.2 HEALTHCARE

The high cost of health services prevent Indonesians from accessing to hospitals and other health care centers when they need For many years, Indonesia did not have a proper health care system, many people could not afford to go to a hospital when they have a health problem There is even a common expression of “poor people are prohibited to be sick” to describe the severity of the circumstances Therefore, another main strategy of the government in reducing poverty and inequality in Indonesia is promoting health care for all people regardless the economic condition, the aim is to ensure that all of the people in Indonesia can receive all the necessary medical treatment when they get ill In 2014, the new government finally took a step introducing public health insurance scheme, namely Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional (JKN) to ensure that all people in Indonesia will have access to public insurance The

4 Adioetomo, S M., Mont, D., & Irwanto (2014) Person with Disabilities in Indonesia: Emprical Facts and Implication for Social Protection Policies Jakarta: Lembaga Demografi Fakultas Ekonomi Universitas Indonesia.