More disabled people to be attracted to self-employment program
By Aygul Salmanova
The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population assigns a special role to attracting people with various categories of disability to self-employment program, Salim Muslumov, minister of labor and social protection of population, told reporters on November 24.
The ministry plans to increase the program’s coverage by 5-6 times next year, he said.
“About 1,320 families were involved in the self-employment program this year, and we tried to ensure the necessary inclusiveness,” the minister said. “Citizens with disabilities also took part in the program, however, their number was too small, and this didn’t satisfy us. Next year, we plan to attract at least 6,000-7,000 families, including disabled people who want to work.”
The minister also noted that people with disabilities will be able to improve their professional skills and master new professions with the help of regional vocational education centers.
“We plan to open one such center until the end of the year, and create three more centers next year,” he added. “As you know, we have the Vocational Rehabilitation Center for young people with disabilities in Baku’s Ramana settlement, where more than 1,200 people were trained. In order to facilitate this task for citizens in the districts, we plan to use our regional centers. After receiving education in these centers, citizens with disabilities will be able to get involved in the self-employment program.”
Muslumov added that employers should create necessary conditions for disabled people in Azerbaijan, and noted that at present, some employers are not ready to create these conditions.
“Some employers don’t want to spend money on people with disabilities,” he said. “We must address this issue jointly. In accordance with the Azerbaijani legislation, half of job quotas are provided for people with disabilities. However, these quotas are not respected today. Absence of serious financial sanctions is one of the reasons for that.”
Muslumov added that this problem should be solved by changing public opinion.
“We need to understand that people with disabilities are citizens just like us and we need to provide conditions for them to lead professional activity and normal life,” he said.
A lot of work should be carried out in Azerbaijan to organize occupational safety, he said.
In particular, it is necessary to create an occupational safety fund in Azerbaijan, Muslumov added.
“We must step up our work in this direction,” he said. “The work shouldn’t be limited to inspections after workplace accidents. It is necessary to take preventive measures to reduce the number of workplace accidents.”
The minister noted that the 2017 statistics show a significant reduction in the number of victims of workplace accidents.
“However, creating the fund and holding educational activities at the fund’s expense, and sometimes providing practical assistance to employers is a necessity, and we are working on this,” Muslumov said.
There were about 570,000 people with disabilities in Azerbaijan, which makes up 6 percent of the total population of Azerbaijan and of them only 10 percent have a job, according to the information of the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare of the population for May 1, 2016.
The report revealed that about 50 percent of minors were at the age to receive education. However, during the mentioned period of time only 288 people are involved in inclusive education.
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