Publication
This report is based on the second round of a quantitative survey conducted in February-March 2021 on COVID-19 Impacts on People with Disabilities in Indonesia. Data collection was led by the Organisation for People with Disabilities (OPD) Network for More Inclusive COVID-19 Response, with support from the Government of Indonesia through the Ministry of National Development Planning (BAPPENAS), and the Australian Government through two development cooperation programs, Towards a Strong and Prosperous Indonesian Society (MAHKOTA) and the Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Justice (AIPJ2).
The second survey round assessed how people with disabilities have been faring nearly a year after the pandemic first impacted Indonesia. It followed the first round of the survey conducted in April 2020. While the general topics covered in the second round of the survey were similar to the first round, changes were made to the questions to adjust to the changing nature of the crisis and the ensuing need for new information. Whereas the previous studies assessed the impacts experienced by people with disability in the early stage of the pandemic, this round of the survey attempts to deepen our understanding by capturing the different levels/severity of the impact of COVID-19 throughout four different periods and how the situation had changed compared to before the pandemic.
The study produced several important findings: (1) Most people with disabilities are engaged in informal employment and have experienced significant declines in income since the pandemic; (2) This economic decline has left 86 per cent of respondents with some degree of difficulty in purchasing essential goods and accessing key services; (3) Limited access to health services, assistive devices, and disability assistants posed a considerable challenge for respondents during the pandemic; (4) Online learning (due to school closures) proved to be particularly challenging for most in-school respondents; (5) Social protection coverage for people with disabilities increased significantly with the implementation of COVID-19 economic response programs; (6) Mainstream social protection programs were more likely to be received by respondents who experienced job loss, as well as those who experienced significant drops in their income (76 per cent and 68 per cent respectively); (7) Grievance systems for social protection schemes are not adequately resourced, with three per cent of respondents who claimed to have been paid lower than the official amount of benefit level, or said they received in-kind support of inadequate quality, found it difficult to file official complaints.
The recommendations are drawn from the learnings gathered in this study and the two preceding studies in the same series: (1) Economic Impacts and Access to Social Protection during the COVID-19 Crisis: The Experiences of People with Disabilities in Indonesia and (2) COVID-19 Impacts on People With Disabilities in Indonesia: An in-depth look
English version
- One year into the pandemic: Socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19 and access to social protection for people with disabilities in Indonesia [DOCX 4.2 MB]
- One year into the pandemic: Socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19 and access to social protection for people with disabilities in Indonesia [PDF 2.8 MB]