Job Market Tough for Visually Impaired

At 28, Raila Ryspekova has two medical qualifications as a masseuse, but has not found an employer in her home town of Talas willing to take her on in the last five years. The head of one clinic told her, “We don’t need blind people here.”



When she returned to the main local hospital to see whether attitudes had changed, one person told her there were no vacancies, and another said it was impossible to take on someone with her level of disability because they would become legally liable if anything happened to her.



The head of Talas region’s health and welfare department, Narynbek Toktosunov told IWPR of the need to “protect the rights of people going to the regional hospital, the patients – they need to get proper treatment”. He added that Kyrgyzstan had no laws on positive discrimination for people with disabilities.



IWPR’s Jannat Toktosunova accompanied her on a visit to a recently-opened clinic to see whether they might agree to take her on, but on arrival they found the doors firmly closed.