Unemployed, 70 percent of the population with disabilities in Yucatán

Mérida, Yucatán, (June 25, 2021).- Jesús Campos Hernández, a person with a disability and director of Building Links of Opportunities, revealed that 70 percent of people with disabilities in Yucatán are unemployed. On the other hand, of the 30 percent who are employed, only 15 percent are in an established company or business, and with a well-paid salary, the other 15 are in the informal economy without benefits.

In addition, only four out of nine people with disabilities attend school and only one in 100 completes their university studies, he explained.

These data show that discrimination against this sector prevails in the state and that an inclusive culture is needed: “an environment in which respect, equity, and recognition, promotion, and defense of people’s human rights are cultivated with disabilities ”, he indicated.

Campos Hernández explained the above, this June 23, during the Virtual Forum ‘The Situation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the Context of the Pandemic: Challenges and Challenges’, which was held by the Yucatán Human Rights Commission (Codhey).  

According to the lawyer, there are still barriers in the state to guarantee labor inclusion; which, as a person with a disability, he has lived; one of them is direct and structural discrimination. “There is a lack of inclusive culture to guarantee the same conditions for people with disabilities,” he said.

“Labor inclusion ends up joining the link of all inclusion efforts since if they do not have the opportunity to generate their own income, it is difficult for us to reach full and effective inclusion,” he stressed.

For example, he mentioned that some companies still maintain the argument of not being trained, of not having human or financial resources, to be able to receive these people with disabilities.

So this not only makes inclusion difficult, but also causes a lack of sensitivity.  

Environmental barriers

Another problem, said the defender of human rights, is the lack of integration in businesses and companies, some businesses place adapted bathrooms and exclusive parking, but in their workforce, they do not hire people with disabilities.

Also another barrier, he added, is the absence of opportunities for entrepreneurship, since labor inclusion is like encouraging them to start their own business, offering training opportunities, and promoting their products.

“There is a lack of an inclusive culture and awareness of citizenship, focused on the fact that all individuals have the obligation to promote and protect, defend human rights as established in the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: everyone, companies, and organizations they must take measures to prevent discrimination ”, said the specialist.

However, according to Jesús Campos, another obstacle detected is that the same people with disabilities continue to maintain, in a traditional way, “a disposition attached to the welfare system, or to the rehabilitation model, where many times all work effort and discipline is perceived with fear, with insecurity ”.

In turn, he reiterated that awareness must be created that the inclusion of people with disabilities is not only an exclusive obligation of the State but that the promotion and dissemination of rights belong to all citizens,

Finally, he recommended carrying out an awareness campaign, “defining the difference between awareness and pity”, to disseminate as a second proposal the fulfillment of the promotion and dissemination of rights and also that the vaccine against Covid-19 is applied immediately to reduce the risk of contagion.