Having sustainable employment is the wish of people with disabilities, especially women with disabilities. However, with visible and invisible barriers, women with disabilities receive less healthcare, education and vocational training, and have less access to income-generating employment opportunities and less participation in community activities. They stay cooped up at home, depend on their families, avoid society and feel ashamed, and have no access to vocational training and employment…
Ms. Nguyen Hong Oanh, Director of IDEA, speaking at the workshop.
This was the information shared at the workshop “Women with disabilities and employment opportunities”, organised by the Center for Research and Action for Inclusive Development (IDEA) in cooperation with the International Labour Organization (ILO) on 30 October 2015.
Barriers that make it hard for women with disabilities to access employment opportunities
Ms. Dinh Thi Quynh Nga (Director of the Hong Heart Handicraft Cooperative, Soc Son, Hanoi) said: In Soc Son District, Hanoi, the district has more than 30,000 people, of whom nearly 3,000 are people with disabilities. Most of them are women, with about 1,000 women with disabilities of working age. Yet most of these women with disabilities belong to poor or near-poor households, because most of them have no jobs, or their jobs are unstable or unsuitable for their health or type of disability. This is also the general situation for women with disabilities. According to a report by the Vietnam Women’s Union: At present, in our country, people with disabilities account for about 6.7 million people; women with disabilities account for about 3.6 million people; women with disabilities depend on their families, relatives and social allowances. Most of them belong to poor households and live in temporary housing.
Ms. Nguyen Hong Oanh, Director of IDEA, said that women with disabilities face not only the same barriers as other women but also additional barriers related to their disability. Women with disabilities are therefore one of the most vulnerable groups in society, for reasons of gender, disability and poverty. Women with disabilities often face more risks and are more vulnerable to labour and sexual abuse than other women, and their reproductive health rights receive less attention and protection… Women with disabilities are also heavily affected by poverty due to gender barriers. The difficulties they face are at least three times greater than those faced by men, and they are a vulnerable group in need of protection.
Women with disabilities exchange experience on increasing income and creating their own jobs.
It must be affirmed that people with disabilities are a considerable labour force in society and need to be protected by law to ensure their equal right to participate in social activities, including the right to sustainable employment. However, according to research by Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Hoai (Vietnam Women’s Academy) on employment for women with disabilities: with a quantitative sample of 463 and a qualitative sample of 45, surveyed in three provinces (Thai Nguyen, Thua Thien Hue and Tay Ninh), fewer than one in three women with disabilities have jobs. Some used to work but had to leave their jobs for many reasons, mostly because they could not find work suited to their health. Many were dismissed or rejected because of low work efficiency, stigma, discrimination and difficulty in travelling.
Women with disabilities face stigma from recruitment until they are employed. Employers often make them feel that their health is not good enough for the job. Families do not agree to let women with disabilities go to work, on the grounds that feeding them and letting them sleep is good enough, and that the time spent taking them to work and bringing them home would be better spent keeping them at home.
The jobs women with disabilities are doing are usually spontaneous, as they have few choices. They are mainly simple labour, the rate of vocational training is low, and even those who are trained do not all manage to work and earn an income. One in four women with disabilities who are working has to work in poor conditions.
According to Dr. Thu Hoai, although access to employment is very difficult for women with disabilities, if they do work they make significant contributions to their families and society. Nearly 40% of women with disabilities who work contribute 11–30% to their families; 22% contribute 31–50% of their income, and 5.9% of women with disabilities contribute more than 50% of their income to their families.
Raising education levels, strengthening vocational training, creating jobs
Speaking at the workshop, Mr. Dao Trong Do – Deputy Director of the Department of Continuing Vocational Training, General Department of Vocational Training (Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs – MOLISA) – said that in the five years 2010–2010, about 120,000 people with disabilities received vocational training and job creation support through vocational training support programmes, loans from the National Employment Fund and job referrals. Of these, nearly 100,000 people with disabilities received vocational training support, over 2,500 received loans from the National Employment Fund, and nearly 19,300 received vocational training advice and job referrals. The vocational training scheme for rural workers supported vocational training for about 20,000 people with disabilities. According to Mr. Do, despite these results, the number of people with disabilities receiving vocational training and job creation support is still low and has not met the targets set out in Decision 1019/QD-TTg. Public communication about vocational training and job creation policies for people with disabilities is still limited, so people with disabilities do not have much information about vocational training, training institutions and suitable jobs, and have no opportunity to access policies. People with disabilities have limited access to preferential loans, partly because people with disabilities who are not from poor or near-poor households cannot borrow from the National Employment Fund. At the same time, capital is limited, so the number of people with disabilities receiving loans is very low.
According to Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Hoai, to increase employment opportunities for women with disabilities, attention should be paid to education, raising education levels and vocational training for women with disabilities, especially young women with disabilities – the group with the most unstable incomes, who are studying and working in jobs without security. In addition, information, advice and job referrals should be provided for women with disabilities, along with capital and transport support. At the same time, there should be guidance on promoting corporate social responsibility in creating jobs for women with disabilities, and active communication to reduce stigma against people with disabilities in general and women with disabilities in particular.
In addition, the approach to creating sustainable employment for women with disabilities also needs to change: vocational training for women with disabilities should suit their abilities. At the same time, a suitable working environment needs to be created for this vulnerable group, from infrastructure and support with transport and daily living to training in life skills and legal skills.
Thao Van / Family and Children Magazine