Barbadians invested in discussions and debate about the economic standing of Barbados after the Minister of Finance laid the Financial Statement and Budgetary Proposals in Parliament last month. Interspersed with the harsh economic realities facing the country was a strong nationalistic tone requesting each citizen to hold strain and make an earnest contribution for the love of country.
In order for the minister’s proposals of stabilization to be effective, the structural realities must improve. In the best of times a large swath of the population has been omitted from the earning class, unable to adequately support themselves, improve their lives or directly contribute to Barbados’ economic development.
Despite being increasingly qualified, well trained and ready to enter the workforce, people with disabilities still face discrimination and prejudice due to a perceived lack of aptitude or that hiring a disabled person is too costly.
Many people with disabilities in Barbados experience daily angst about their personal and familial well-being. This sense of unease must only be heightened in this period where Barbadians are being told that they must survive “a time of weeping”; asking more of the disabled community at large is impossible.
These untenable realities obtain in a country that recently ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which in Article 27 on work and employment proclaims: “Prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability with regard to all matters concerning all forms of employment, including conditions of recruitment, hiring and employment, continuance of employment, career advancement and safe and healthy working conditions.”
In keeping with our commitments under the treaty, Government should employ people with disabilities in the public sector as well as “promote the employment of persons with disabilities in the private sector through appropriate policies and measures, which may include affirmative action programmes, incentives and other measures.”
It is a collective responsibility but it is Government’s leadership that will assist in fostering alliances between the disabled community and other sectors in the society, which allows for inclusion not only in the workforce but in society at large.
Barbados’ sound emergence must be premised on allowing every citizen the opportunity to work towards their dreams; being denied the chance to achieve your goals is an indignity too grand for proper explanation here.
The new Medium Term Fiscal Strategy sets goals for supporting the employment of the disabled by facilitating “equal opportunities for person with disabilities in the area of employment and education in partnership with stakeholders”. Hopefully this goal and others within the strategy are worked on with haste in order to improve lives and stabilize the economy.
As calypso monarch Ian Webster tells us in his winning song One Blood, we must undergo a change in the status quo and give all a bright tomorrow. Each of us can contribute to the progress of this land we love when we are recognized for our unique talents.
