Persons With Disabilities in Indonesia: Empirical Facts and Implications for Social Protection Policies

Commissioned Report

September 2014

Authors : Sri Moertiningsih Adioetomo, Daniel Mont and Irwanto​

In Indonesia as in many other countries of the world, persons with disabilities have poorer health outcomes, lower education achievements, less economic participation and higher rates of poverty than persons without disabilities. This is partly because people with disabilities experience barriers in accessing services that many of us have long taken for granted, including health, education, employment, and transport as well as information.These difficulties are exacerbated in less advantaged communities. In the years ahead, disability will be an even greater concern because its prevalence is on the rise. This is due to ageing populations and the higher risk of disability in older people as well as the global increase in chronic health conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and mental health disorders.

Persons with Disabilities in Indonesia: Empirical Facts and Implications for Social Protections Policies provides for the first time in Indonesian history a comprehensive empirical overview on nationally representative disability statistics. Besides the use of Riskesdas 2007 and Census 2010 data, this report makes use of a unique household survey of 2,000 individuals with disabilities in 11 provinces that was conducted in March 2012. The report further includes a review of the Indonesian and international legal framework related to persons with disabilities and discusses a variety of urgent policy interventions that aim at improving the life of persons with disabilities in Indonesia, particular those who live in poverty.

The mission of the National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction (Tim Nasional Percepatan Penanggulangan Kemiskinan or TNP2K) is to coordinate poverty alleviation policies in Indonesia. As part of its tasks, TNP2K conducts and commissions research reports and studies with the objective of facilitating and informing evidence based policy planning (http://www.tnp2k.go.id).

This work is a product of the staff of the Demographic Institute, Faculty of Economics, University of Indonesia. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Tim Nasional Percepatan Penanggulangan Kemiskinan (TNP2K), the Government of Indonesia or the Government of Australia.

Support for this publication has been provided by the Australian Government through the Poverty Reduction Support Facility (PRSF).

You are free to copy, distribute and transmit this work, for noncommercial purposes.

To request copies of the report or for more information on the report, please contact the TNP2K - Knowledge Management Unit (kmu@tnp2k.go.id). The reports are also available at the TNP2K website.​