Blind renew equal opportunity demands
JAKARTA (JP): Blind masseurs are often seen walking through housing complexes in the evening, seeking people who require their services.
The question is why are so many blind people attempting to eke out a living with their massage skills, when the Constitution guarantees all citizens equal opportunities in obtaining an education and employment in all fields?
Setia Adi Purwanta of the Yogyakarta-based Dria Manunggal Foundation lamented on Monday the long-standing stigma imposed by the government and society on people with different abilities, marking them as incapable and unable to take any role in the community.
"It's a very discriminatory way of thinking. It's not the question of being able or not, but we have never been given the chance to contribute to society," he told The Jakarta Post here on the sidelines of a four-day training seminar for the blind.
Setia, who lost his vision 25 years ago in an accident, insisted that the government revise the national education system to put the blind and other people with different abilities on the same level with other students.
"We have submitted a counterdraft of the education law to the House of Representatives, which offers a more humane education and obliges the government to take full responsibility for its enforcement," he said, adding that the deliberation of the bill is expected to start in October.
Under the proposed education system, all schools would be required to admit students with different abilities.
The executive director of the non-governmental group Yayasan Mitra Netra, Bambang Basuki, said the state should not evade its responsibility to provide special services and facilities for people with different abilities, particularly since many disabilities were the result of development.
"The state has failed to provide jobs and social security, while accidents can happen at anytime which can cause people to suffer some form of impairment. But now we are considered the burden of society. Society still treats us as less human. This I cannot understand," he told the Post.
Yayasan Mitra Netra, which focuses on education and human resource development for the blind, is holding leadership training to help the younger generation maintain the struggle for their rights.
The event's steering committee chairwoman, Aria Indrawati, said less than 1 percent of eight million visually impaired people in the country received a proper education that would allow them to compete with others, especially in seeking employment.
Meanwhile, the vice chairman of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association, Harry Wibowo, said the association would provide legal aid for people with different abilities whose rights were abused. (bby)