According to the law, the state is bound to provide comprehensive development and conditions for persons with disabilities. However, in reality this norm remains on paper and is not implemented in practice.
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In Kyrgyzstan, there are about 193 thousand citizens with disabilities both mental and physical. According to the Ministry of Labour and Social Development, over 90 per cent of people of employable age in this category do not have work. Socialisation and employment of persons with disabilities is the exception rather than the rule in the country.
One of rare yet successful examples of socialisation of persons with disabilities is the village of Murake, Moskovsky district of Chui region.
Gulbarchyn Takyrbasheva, the founder and chief of the facility, said that the rehabilitation social village ‘Manas’ now has 23 tenants with disabilities both physical and mental, who have reached their full age. They are the graduates of boarding schools who have nowhere to go after graduation.
She explained that the social village model, which is now 16 years, is based on Germany’s experience, when people with disabilities are created conditions where they can communicate with people, work and have an opportunity for self-fulfilment.
The village is yet the only facility in the republic that works to create conditions for people with disabilities. Its graduates are all involved into work that they feel like doing: some work in a felt-making workshop, where they make various souvenirs, in summer, they work in the garden and orchard, others make pastries and cookies in the bakery. In the yard, there is a small farm – a cowshed with calves, a henhouse and a hothouse, which provide jobs to the graduates and supply them with dairy products.
The territory of the social village is rather spacious, its graduates work, and the activities of the social village are designed for personal and social development of graduates, said Gulbarchyn Takyrbasheva.
The head of the social village is sure that in order to socialise, train and employ people with disabilities, the state must first reform all social institutions. According to her, people in Kyrgyzstan look at persons with disabilities as if they are sick.
“These people are kept in closed boarding facilities, they don’t get any education,” she said. “There are absolutely no conditions for their socialisation and rehabilitation. Moreover, we have a stigma: if a person has disability, this is a second-class citizen. The society must overcome this stigma. Everyone should understand that persons with disabilities are the same people as everyone else. They also have a right to education, to labour, to cultural life. The entire society must work in this direction.”
Speaking of insufficient support from the authorities, Gulbarchyn Takyrbasheva said that they cannot get or buy from the authorities a land plot to grow feed for their cattle for a long time. According to her, the local authorities cannot turn to them and provide a land plot.
“They gave us a land plot at the end of nowhere, but our graduates cannot go there every day because it is too far. The people in power have here 40-60 hectares of land each. The authorities cannot allocate 5 hectares of land to a social facility, orphans, people with disabilities,” she complained. “The most interesting thing is that we even tried and were willing to buy a land plot. We found a few land plots convenient for us, but the authorities said these plots were already sold. Our organisation is legally registered in Bishkek. We have asked the mayor’s office to help us find the premises for a social store where we could sell our dairy and other products. A lot of time has passed since then, but the question is in suspense.”
The director of the facility said they have many problems and they are having hard times, but they carry on.
Various projects on socialisation and further employment of persons with disabilities are being opened in the republic at the initiative of particular citizens or public organisations: practical courses in culinary arts, a store selling craftwork made by persons with disabilities, and many other projects.
However, there are few successful projects in the republic so far. The existing models exist usually for a certain period of time and often at the cost of donor’s expenses.
In summer 2020, a social café opened in Bishkek. Its workers are both healthy people and persons with disabilities.
One of the founders of the social café, Nurmat Eshaliev, said that he thought about inclusion for the first time when his daughter was born with Down syndrome. According to him, the idea of opening an inclusive business occurred to him when he thought about the future of his child and sought ways of making such children independent and able to provide themselves.
In March 2019, Kyrgyzstan ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which means that it must fully involve persons with disabilities into public life and have equal attitude towards them. It also means that the authorities must create an infrastructure for persons with disabilities, to provide them with full access to medical services equally with other citizens. The state must ensure inclusive education, create conditions so that children with disabilities could attend regular schools equally with all other children.
The UN Convention, unlike the national laws, is focused on social approach. It means that people with disabilities need to have equal attitude in terms of human rights, and they must not be taken as ill people.
Zhanyl Alybaeva, the deputy minister of labour and social development, said that an interagency working group was created, a Plan of Initial Measures to implement the norms of the UN Convention was developed and is under consideration of the national government. This group is also developing the draft of the Accessible Country Programme until 2040.
The deputy minister also said that Kyrgyzstan had implemented the measures of socialisation and employment of persons with disabilities before the said convention was ratified. According to her, the Ministry of Labour and Social Development calls for bids from non-profit and non-governmental organisations for social projects every year. The budget provides for 38 million som for such tenders.
“We cover not only persons with disabilities, but also other categories such as children and families that are in difficult situation, unemployed citizens, the elderly people. We provide training in a few disciplines for people with disabilities for their further employment. Such citizens generally attend dress-making courses, and PC skills courses. These two disciplines cover most of the people. Then follow provision of various social services, consumer services, such as cobbling, dry cleaning and clothing restoration, culinary skills, hairdressing services, manicure, furniture assembly and making services,” Alybaeva said.
Zhanyl Alybaeva said that the republic today has about 193 thousand persons with disabilities. Among them, according to official data, only 3 per cent of those who are registered with the ministry are employed. Moreover, according to the Law “On the rights and guarantees of the persons with disabilities” and the Labour Code of the Kyrgyz Republic, 5 per cent quota applies to employment of persons with disabilities.
“Unfortunately, this norm is implemented neither by state bodies, nor by non-governmental bodies,” said the deputy minister.
To solve this issue, according to Zhanyl Alybaeva, the Ministry of Labour and Social Development has developed a draft law that was submitted to the Government’s Office. According to her, the draft law provides for a norm and quota for employment of persons with disabilities in state and municipal services. This norm is available in the Labour Code of the Kyrgyz Republic, but is has no clear mechanisms of implementation by state and municipal bodies. So, the draft law is going to fill these gaps.
According to the deputy minister, according to the law “On state civil service and municipal service”, citizens must go through a competitive hiring to get a job.
“A 5 per cent quota applies to citizens with disabilities when they apply for a state or municipal service, or they should go through a competitive hiring just like all other citizens. We have specified these moments and mechanisms of work so that they could be employed easier. Moreover, the civil sector that works with persons with disabilities promotes the idea of revision of a 5 per cent quota either upwards or downwards,” Alybaeva said.
However, according to Gulbarchyn Takyrbasheva, one of the main issues is that people with disabilities do not have conditions for education, socialisation and further employment. For example, when they visited the communities in Germany where disabled people live, they were astonished at the unique things those people could make when they had appropriate conditions.
“We have been working for 16 years and saying to everyone: share our experience, open such villages in every region or district. It’s better than sitting in closed premises. It is important to do something; not just the state, but also the society must turn to such people. If we change our attitude towards people, everything will change. Everything has changed in developed countries, people’s attitude has changed, and such people live a decent life, they have jobs, an opportunity to acquire new skills, social accompaniment,” Takyrbasheva said.
As we know, Kyrgyzstan has a law “On the rights and guarantees of persons with disabilities”. A couple of years ago the document was amended to expand the opportunities for the people with disabilities, as well as to create favourable conditions for their active participation in economic, political and cultural life of the society.
Moreover, according to the national law, employers must create jobs for persons with disabilities according to the established quota.
The national government pays attention to this problem from time to time and gives orders to dedicated agencies to inspect whether this norm is implemented by state bodies. But in reality this norm exists on paper only and is not implemented in full.
Tolkunbek Isakov, the lawyer, head of the fund “Provision of Legal Aid to Persons with Disabilities”, said that this issue must be solved in an integrated manner.
“If we speak from particulars to generals, the employers must be motivated to employ persons with disabilities,” Isakov said. “These could be some tax exemptions. Employers must be interested in creating jobs for citizens with disabilities because such jobs mean extra costs, extra problems for employers. Conditions should be created in state and municipal bodies because we should not focus on private sector only.”
“The state must lead the way in the labour market, show that citizens with disabilities can work and be employed. Now there are no such examples in state and municipal services,” Isakov said.
He is also sure that every closed facility is like a step backward because it is openness that is the point of an inclusive society.
According to Tolkunbek Isakov, the society must change its attitude towards persons with disabilities. In his opinion, the people usually think that persons with disabilities are welfare recipients back from the Soviet times. If they want to work, they may work only in closed facilities, like job training workshops, as it was before. But this is a step backward.
When mentioning the ratification of the UN Convention by Kyrgyzstan, Tolkunbek Isakov pointed out that money is needed to implement the norms of the Convention, whereas the national budget has problems and there is no point in speaking about the implementation of these norms.
“What’s most important in this issue is the people’s attitude, not the money,” Isakov said.
He is confident that once the country’s top leadership has a political will, all ideas will be feasible.
“It doesn’t mean that all buildings must have ramps at once, or all road intersections must be equipped with audible traffic signals,” Isakov said. “What we mean is passive changes. What’s done now must be done in a more qualitative way. For example, schools have the so-called ramps, some are usable, but most of them are formal, i.e. they are too steep, and no one uses them. If we have more human approach, it’s within our powers to create appropriate conditions.”
According to Tolkunbek Isakov, when we speak about socialisation and employment of citizens with disabilities, we should not forget about education because how can we speak about employing specialists if we don’t provide them with education.
“When they speak about inclusive education, I regret to say that Kyrgyzstan has no inclusive education so far. If we have inclusive education, we’ll be employing educated citizens with disabilities,” Isakov said.
According to him, a representative of Ministry of Education and Science told about open correction classes at the meeting. However, correction classes do not mean inclusive education. Such classes are intended for persons with disabilities; inclusion is not the point there. There is a problem of the educational system and understanding of inclusive education.
In Kyrgyzstan, the Union of persons with disabilities “Equality” has been supporting women with disabilities for many years. It unifies and trains them, carries out practical courses and information trainings for them.
The head of this union, Gulmira Kazakunova, said that the norms of the Convention will be implemented gradually, now some aspects are being already implemented. Some norms require finances, but some do not.
According to her, the policy of the state must change and the disability issue must be in top priority in order to change the society’s attitude towards persons with disability.
“By priority I mean that the same programmes must be funded. They won’t be implemented without funding. The state’s policy must shift from the mosaic policy to maximum coverage policy. Therefore, if the state’s attitude changes, the society’s attitude will also change,” she said.
This article was prepared as part of the Giving Voice, Driving Change – from the Borderland to the Steppes Project