The hotels and tourism sector is one of the sectors driving socio-economic development in Myanmar. The State is also encouraging the sector because it can create jobs for people living with disabilities and the aged.
According to data released by the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, there are more than 2,000 hotels with over 81,200 rooms in Myanmar.
The hotels employ more than 86,400 staff nationwide. But, just over 50 of the total hotel staff are living with disabilities. This situation makes it necessary for us to look into the staggering rate of unemployment and poor pay in the disabled community.
Regulations, which can increase the employment quota for the disabled and benefit aged persons, are crucial to ensure a better future for people living with disabilities. We also need to ensure that staff living with disabilities are not paid below minimum wage.
To achieve this goal, the national-level committee for rights of disabled persons, the national tourism development central committee, and organizations working with disabled persons, and the people need to work together and listen to the voices of the disabled.
Another issue we need to work on is increasing accessibility for the disabled to improve social inclusion. We should make accessibility a priority. The disabled community often faces obstacles in terms of accessibility, something that is crucial for social inclusion.
The Ministry of Construction must adopt regulations for the construction of buildings to ensure that all buildings and surrounding areas can be easily accessed by people living with disabilities.
Public centers, mass transit vehicles, shopping malls, museums, cultural buildings, cinemas, parks, and recreation centers should be upgraded so they offer increased accessibility to people living with disabilities.
Through the above steps, we can move forward to create ‘barrier-free tourism’, which can ensure the safety and security of all travelers, including visitors living with disabilities.
With the boom in tourism, we can create jobs by providing vocational training to people living with disabilities and encouraging them to produce items for hotels and souvenirs for the tourism sector.
Guaranteeing the rights of each disabled person is part of the democratic reforms of the Union government.
GNLM
