Kyrgyzstan has over 200 thousand persons with disabilities, according to the National Statistical Committee. There is no official statistics on how many of them are able to work and how many of them have jobs or are self-employed. The law provides for a five per cent quota for persons with special needs upon employment, but it is actually not met. Even a diploma does not guarantee employment by profession.
Difficult to find a job
33-year-old Mirbek Aaliev knows it from his experience. Employers refused him work several times because of his hearing disability.
Upon completion of the school for hearing-impaired children, Mirbek enrolled in college No. 5 to get the profession of a finisher. But later he realised it was not for him, and he attended three-month courses in furniture making and started to work. He had few orders and the young man had to take leave without pay often and look for a side job. During the Covid-19 pandemic, it was even harder to get a job and he could not get hired anywhere.
For the last two years, Mirbek has worked with “Afis” company as head of production department. They assemble vehicle sets, which later will be used for assembling electric trucks.
“The company has a good environment, the management focuses on employment and support of persons with disabilities. Other places of works offer piece-work payment, while here they pay us salaries,” the man said.
The vehicle set assembly line is located in the building of the Bishkek Training and Production Facility No. 3 (BUPP), in the vicinity of the furniture assembly workshop, where persons with hearing impairments work.
According to Marat Tashbaev, director of BUPP-3 of the Kyrgyz Society of Blind and Deaf, nearly 500 persons are employed out of 8 thousand members of the society. There are 11 subordinate facilities in the republic, which make clothing, furniture, metal structures.
“Workers are mainly persons with hearing disabilities. Visually impaired persons make mattresses, blankets, pillows,” Marat Tashbaev said.
The mean pay at enterprises is about 15 thousand som (171.59 dollars), but there are quarter and lump sum bonuses. Nearly 60 per cent of workers are the elderly, who are used to work at enterprises. According to Tashbaev, young people do not want to work there.
“To earn more, we need to produce in batches. Seamstresses, for example, sew bedding sheets today, and working clothes tomorrow. This is inconvenient (sewing machines should be adjusted, and the worker should get used) and affects the pace of work and pricing. Kyrgyzstan is small and we have difficulties with serial production, unfortunately,” Marat Tashbaev said.
Assistance by request
According to the official statistics, about 3 per cent of total population of Kyrgyzstan are persons with musculoskeletal disorders, visual, hearing impairments, impaired intellect, psychological and cognitive disorders. And their number is growing every year.
According to the law, there is no probation period for persons with disabilities, they must have not more than 7 working hours per day (35 hours vs. standard 40 hours).
The Ministry of Labour admit that job quotas for persons with special needs are not fully met. And there are few reasons for that. First, job seekers refuse some job offers because of low salaries. Second, employers do not offer high-paying jobs because of job peculiarities that require special skills or focus.
Besides, most of employers do not create necessary conditions – ramps, handrails, accessible toilets. There are also difficulties with public transport accessibility. People have difficulties with reaching their places of work, especially in bad weather, and taxi is not affordable to all.
Education is not for everyone
Chances to be employed depend mainly on the level of education and qualification of the job seeker. According to Seinep Dyikanbaeva, lawyer of the public association of parents of children with disabilities, ARDI, it is certainly harder for a person with disability to get a job – as their choices are limited and depend on their physical abilities. Some of them, for example, cannot physically sweep the streets, wash dishes, or work as waiters.
Access to education in Kyrgyzstan is available only to a limited number of persons with disabilities. According to Seinep Dyikanbaeva, education in the country is not inclusive, but integrated one. If a person can study under a general curriculum at school or university, they would be enrolled in an educational setting without any special conditions.
According to the Ministry of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic, 174 persons with disabilities studied in 2021/22 academic year in initial vocational schools, 295 in secondary vocational schools, and 205 in institutions of higher professional education.
In 2021, the agency lowered the threshold score for school leavers with disability groups 1 and 2 who enrolled to universities. They had a quota for grant places.
However, only those school leavers who earned the passing grade at the General Republican Test (ORT) can apply for the quota. Not all specialties are covered by the quota. And not always can persons with disabilities study, even if they have the grant. This is related to the inaccessible environment.
Despite these difficulties, people know that they will not be able to get a job with no education, so they use all available possibilities.
The social centre “Equal opportunities” sometimes helps their students to choose a university and profession, to get ready for entrance examinations.
The way of passing ORT is not meant for graduates with visual impairment. According to the director of the centre, Aidai Tolonova, many deaf and hearing-impaired persons are not enrolled to universities because of the lack of conditions. According to her, in the age of digitisation, all lectures and videos could be recorded on video with sign language interpretation and subtitles, while examinations could be replaced with testing or verbal tasks by involving a sign language interpreter.
“Their services in our country are not as expensive as in Russia and Kazakhstan. Universities have c chance to cover this minimum costs,” said Aidai Tolonova. “However, they may be affected by stereotypes and vestiges of the former system of education, i.e. isolation of persons with special needs.”
No employment is guaranteed
As it turned out, even the diploma does not guarantee the job in the specialty field.
A few years ago, CABAR.asia told about Viktoria Biryukova, who, despite bureaucratic problems, could be admitted to KNU, department of Russian and Slavic philology and could successfully do her bachelor’s degree, and then the master’s degree. The girl’s acquired disability resulting from the ischemic stroke that happened to her when she was a teenager.
We wondered if Viktoria could find a job in her specialty field. She said she failed.
She needed 1.5 years to get the diploma (bachelor’s and master’s). She applied to the Ministry of Education, lawyers and other decision-makers. Graduates of budget departments must work in their professional field for several years before they can get their diploma. Viktoria Biryukova could not do it: no one offered a job to her related to her profession. The university found three schools for her and issued formal referrals.
However, the first school needed the Kyrgyz-speaking teacher. The second school was located in another end of the city.
Now Viktoria works as PR manager in the union of persons with disabilities “Ravenstvo” [Equality]. The work is a remote one.
Yet another reason for refusal
Persons with disabilities may be denied a job for other reasons.
37-year-old Nurlan (not his real name) is economist by degree, and tried to get a job in the bank. They knew about his 1st group disability acquired after the kidney transplantation, but they continued to repeat at the interview that he did not match the age range.
Now the young man does not work, and receives the state allowance only.
“I need a quiet work, with papers. Communication with customers, call centre, sales department and things like that are not for me,” he said honestly.
Earlier, Nurlan worked in customer support departments of mobile providers. His experience was different.
He had a five-hour workday and his probation period lasted three months, and the coronavirus pandemic started in a month. Because of his immune system, Nurlan decided to resign. In the third company, he worked without giving notice of his health issues, and soon realised that loads that are good for others were significant for him. Medications he needs to take on a regular basis affect his health.
“Afterwards, I decided to notify my potential employer of my disability always,” he said.
Employers also need motivation
Askar Turdugulov, media expert in labour rights of persons with disabilities of the “Centre of Solidarity in the Kyrgyz Republic”, said that national legislation was good.
“But there is no precise law enforcement. The five per cent quota is mentioned as declaration in the law, and there is no control over its enforcement by state bodies. Employers are unwilling to fulfil the quota because they do not have accessible environment. Although applicable standards initially provide for ramps, and buildings are not commissioned without them. But it does not work,” he said.
However, Askar Turdugulov noted positive changes, too – employers have started to employ persons with disabilities more often lately.
According to him, such workers are mainly needed in IT, design, beauty services (eyelash extension, manicure) and call centres. Remote workers are also needed. Therefore, amendments to the Labour Code of the Kyrgyz Republic regulating distant work can have a positive impact.
According to Askar Turdugulov, the state must create conditions for employers and motivate them to hire persons with disabilities by giving them loans, microfinancing, no-interest loans.
Struggling against stereotypes
Instructors of the centre “Equal opportunities” teach persons with hearing impairments, blind and visually impaired ones, as well as pensioners to computer skills and data digitisation, graphic design, photo processing and video editing. The organisation also helps to get a job, but shows no stable dynamics so far.
According to Aidai Tolonova, employment happens on a case-by-case basis – after the scrutiny of the applicant, their habits and makeup, as well as repeated meetings with employers.
“But sometimes it happens that a person changes their mind and we have to apologise to the employer,” she said. “We try offer jobs in light industry, internet providers and mobile operators, banks, phone repair services.”
The society, according to Aidai Tolonova, thinks about persons with disabilities that they are helpless people who need charity. And the latter eventually take this pattern of behaviour. This stereotype affects the intention of potential employers, too. Although, this is not applicable to all as not all are disabled.
“Hearing impaired persons are able-bodied. These are people who are fully functioning, are able to learn everything that is required on the labour market,” Aidai Tolonova said.