Last Friday, we used this column to appeal to the government to attend urgently to members of the Toll Workers of Ghana. Our plea was based on a petition the group presented to Parliament requesting the government to pay salary arrears it owed them and also take steps to reintroduce road toll collection in the country.
According to these toll workers, who are mostly Persons Living with Disabilities (PWDs), the government has neither paid monies it promised them upon the cancellation of the road toll collection nor given them the alternative employment.
But we feel there is a need to re-echo the call on the government to give our disabled colleagues a listening ear based on some revelations that were made at the just-ended 6th Ghana Economic Update by the World Bank.
According to a Social Protection Specialist at the World Bank, Christabel Dadzie, 25% of Ghanaians who are into wage employment are better off than 69% who are into self-employment.
We were alarmed, because if 69% of people with legs and hands who are working are not doing well economically, what then will become of our disabled friends who are not into any form of employment in a few months to come?
Getting formal employment for PWDs who make up 3% of Ghana’s population has been a herculean task over the years.
Research indicates that although PWDs capable of doing jobs done by the abled persons, their participation and integration into the labour market has not been encouraging due to low level of education, discrimination and inaccessibility to public places.
In situations where a disabled person even has a higher qualification than the non-disabled, some employers still give preference to the latter instead of the former. Some have given reasons for their choice of preference as being that working with a disabled person comes with extra cost and burden.
For instance, some employers are of the view that, when you employ a deaf and dump person, they must also employ a sign language interpreter who would assist the deaf person at his/her place of work and that additional person comes at a cost. Same applies to employing a blind person and many other disabled individuals.
Despite the education that some of these costs will not be borne by the organization employing the disabled individuals, many employers have paid deaf ears and shunned the idea of employing PWDs.
We are sure the government is fully aware of this challenge and that is why it took steps to create a formal employment for them and we were full of praise for the government when it allotted 50% of toll jobs to them.
Based on the revelation by the World Bank, even if our PWDs out of frustrations decide to set up their own small businesses, they may just add up to the 69% struggling individuals and groups.
Though the country is going through perilous times at the moment, which calls for every Ghanaian group or individual to be circumspect in their demands on the government, the latter should still give our disabled friends a listening ear.
