'Law on facilities for the disabled needed'

'Law on facilities for the disabled needed'

While Indonesia commemorates the International Day of Disabled
Persons every Dec. 3, many observers said that the country has
not upheld the law that stipulates the provision of facilities
for the disabled. The Jakarta Post interviewed two urban
activists on what the Jakarta administration ought to do.

S.K Butar Butar, 30, is an activist of a non-governmental
organization that deals with budgetary transparency. He lives on
Jl. Kramat Raya in Central Jakarta:

I do not see any commitment from the city administration to
provide disabled persons with adequate facilities.

Most urban conveniences like pedestrian sidewalks, public
transportation, as well as government offices are not equipped
with facilities for disabled.

Meanwhile, the city itself has a regulation, which requires
all buildings to have facilities for the disabled.

Therefore, the city administration must require any new
buildings, both those owned by the government and private
companies, to be equipped with facilities for them.

Azas Tigor Nainggolan, 41, is the chairman of the Jakarta
Residents Forum (Fakta), whose activities focus on advocacy work
with poor families. He lives in Kramat Jati subdistrict, East
Jakarta:

We often discuss the fate of the disabled people at Fakta
meetings. We see that facilities for disabled people in the city
are very scarce, while they face discrimination in education and
employment.

Therefore, we have submitted a draft of the bylaw on
facilities for the disabled to the City Council's Commission E
for people's welfare. I hope that it will become a reference for
the councillors to create their own version of the draft bylaw on
the same subject.

In the draft, we include a number of issues, such as the city
administration's obligation to develop special facilities for the
disabled at all public places.

We also include the obligation of companies to employ disabled
persons, while schools cannot reject disabled students.

In short, the draft bylaw rules out all non-discriminatory
treatment of disabled people.

-- The Jakarta Post