Disabled persons still poor, marginalised

Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Tuesday February 15, 2022 12:07

 

Disabled persons still poor, marginalised

The Quarterly Multi Topic Survey quarter four of 2021 released by Botswana reflects that about 3,361 more disabled people were employed during the time under review. This increase brings the number of employed persons living with disability to 9,358 in quarter four (Q4) of 2021 from 5,997 persons in Q4 2020.

However, while this is an improvement, it represents just a paltry 1.3 percent of a total estimate of 717,418 employed persons in the country.

Unlike for the total employment for all where elementary occupations constituted the largest share, for employed persons with disability, service/sales workers occupational category was the highest with 32.9% followed by elementary occupations with 21.3%.

The statistics show that despite Botswana ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, people living with disabilities continue to be denied or have limited opportunities to work. The convention is intended as a human rights instrument with an explicit, social development dimension. It adopts a broad categorisation of persons with disabilities and reaffirms that all persons with all types of disabilities must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms.

They are faced with barriers to equal job opportunities as compared to those without disabilities, with the majority of employers still hesitant to employ people with disabilities because they believe they may bring problems in the workplace.

An analysis of the report indicates that only a few employers are willing to hire workers with disabilities. This as a result makes people living with disability to be affected by high unemployment and insufficient social protection which then further increases their risk of poverty.

The report shows that the unemployment rate for persons with disability was estimated at 19%. Quarter four of 2021 recorded a total of 2,195 persons as the number of unemployed persons with disability. This is a decrease from 2,652 persons, which was recorded in Q4 2020. From this, the male unemployment rate stood at 19% compared to 24.5% for females. The International Labour Organisation has advocated the inclusion of people with disability in the world of work.