The National Committee for Persons with Disabilities plans to support training and roll out livelihood and startup models for about 20,000 people with disabilities this year. (Photo: VNA) Vietnam counts more than 7 million people withdisabilities, or over 7.06% of the national population above two years old, ofwhom, 28.9% suffer from severe defects. As many as 342,329 families andindividuals are currently taking care of social welfare beneficiaries.
Statistics showed that most of the disabled people arepoor, neither attend school nor have academic degrees, are of the working ageand live in rural areas. They help their families with farming, forestry andfishery activities, with low incomes.
The Party, State and people have paid heed to thegroup, as reflected through the adoption of many relevant policies, and the allocationof resources for the implementation of the policies, programmes and projects.
As a result, more than 1.1 million disabled peoplehave received monthly social allowances and free health insurance cards.
Article 4 of the Law on Persons with Disabilitiesprescribes that persons with disabilities are guaranteed to participate on anequal basis in social activities; live independently and integrate into thecommunity; enjoy exemption from or reduction of certain contributions to socialactivities; to be provided with healthcare, functional rehabilitation,education, vocational training, employment, legal assistance, access to publicfacilities, means of transport, information technology and cultural, sports,tourist and other services suitable to their forms and degrees of disability,and others in line with legal regulations.
Illustrative image (Source: VNA) Pham Thi Hai Ha, Deputy Director of the Ministry ofLabour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA)' Department of Social Protection,said more than 28.73 trillion VND (1.22 billion USD) was earmarked from thestate budget last year for the implementation of the government’s Decree No.20/2021/ND-CP dated March 15, 2021 on support to social allowancebeneficiaries, and another 480 billion VND for the roll-out of support policiestowards disabled people in terms of education.
Apart from the state budget, relevant organisationsand associations have also worked hard to mobilise resources from differenteconomic sectors in order to improve living standards of the disabled people.
The 2010 Law on Persons with Disabilities alsoprescribes vocational training and employment for them.
Vietnam ratified the UN Convention on the Rights ofPersons with Disabilities and the International Labour Organisation (ILO)’s Convention159 on Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment for Disabled Persons.
The Law on Vocational Education also devotes onechapter to vocational training for disabled people, helping them beself-employed or seek employment, thus stabilising their lives.
The State has pledged to provide financial support andother incentives for the institutions that offer vocational education to thedisabled.
Disabled self-employed people and households thatcreate jobs for the disabled can access preferential loans in service of theirproduction and business, and receive assistance in terms of both technology andproduction consumption in line with the Government’s regulations.
Each year, some 19,000 disabled people benefit fromsuch vocational training programmes, more than 20,000 are supported in jobseeking and nearly 40,000 access preferential loans.
For the role of employers, the Ordinance on DisabledPersons stipulates that the disabled should account for 2-3% of the workforceof each enterprise. If not, the businesses must monthly contribute to theemployment fund for people with disabilities an amount equivalent to theminimum wage prescribed by the State for the disabled employees.
An ILO report showed that Vietnam loses 3% of GDP bynot employing people with disabilities in the labour market.
Director of the Social Protection Department To Ducsaid the legal system related to people with disabilities will be reviewed thisyear, with a focus on breakthrough policies to enhance their accessibility tovocational education, and create jobs and stable livelihoods for them.
The MoLISA also coordinate with relevant ministries,agencies and localities to build a dossier on amending and supplementing theLaw on Persons with Disabilities, the Employment Law, and the Law on SocialInsurance, in which suitable policies for the disabled will be integrated andsupplemented, he added./.
VNA
