"Data is an important thing, but it is not easy to get the data. Hence, we need to work together with the community to get the data," she said at the Panel Discuss II: Partnership for Disability Inclusion and Empowerment and Way Forward of the ASEAN High-Level Forum on Enabling Disability-Inclusive Development and Partnership Beyond 2025 here on Wednesday.
In this way, the central government will be able to know about the conditions of people with disabilities and their characteristics. Hence, the central government, especially the Ministry of Social Affairs, can specifically meet their needs.
With the integrated social welfare data (DTKS), which was verified in 2022, the Indonesian government provided free food for disabled people that live alone and do not have a family.
Furthermore, with the presence of the data, people with disabilities are acquainted with good practices to become entrepreneurs and are offered subsidies.
Disabled people, who become entrepreneurs, are also included in the National Economic Heroes (PENA) Program and given training to create and market micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) products online every Saturday and Sunday.
The minister highlighted that the government should support people with disabilities by providing equipment to support their lives and to make them independent despite a lot of money being required for it.
"What is important is motivation to make them trust themselves and to make their lives better," Rismaharini stressed.
Some 13 countries, comprising nine ASEAN member countries, Timor-Leste as an observer, and three ASEAN partners, namely the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, attended the ASEAN High-Level Forum on Disability-Inclusive Development and Partnership Beyond 2025.
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Translator: Devi Nindy, Raka Adji
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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