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uring an event to commemorate International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said he would open up employment opportunities at the city administration for people with disabilities in the hope that the initiative would be followed by other institutions and companies across the capital.

From next year, the city administration would recruit people with disabilities by giving a special instruction to all bureaus and working units to make opportunities available, said Anies at Tuna Grahita Belaian Kasih social home in Kalideres, West Jakarta, on Wednesday.

“If the city administration does not recruit them, how can we ask other institutions to do so?”

He added that he would order the Jakarta Employment Agency (BKD) to form a team that would be responsible for organizing the recruitment process.

According to city administration data, the number of people with disabilities in Jakarta amounts to about 14,131 people.

The city administration employs about 70,000 people.

Article 53 of Law No. 8/2016 on people with disabilities regulates that the central government, local administration and both state-owned and provincial administration-owned enterprises must employ people with disabilities amounting to at least two percent of their total employees. For privately owned enterprises, the figure stands at one percent.

However, Jakarta Employment Agency head Agus Suradika revealed that the number of people with disabilities who currently worked at the city administration was far from the required number, as stipulated in the law.

“We have some disabled people working here but I cannot recall the number. It is not even one percent of the total 70,000 employees,” Agus told The Jakarta Post via phone.

“In 2015, we recruited one visually impaired employee.”

In the meantime, he would identify the need of employees at the administration and then reported it to the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry to get permission to recruit new employees.

“We will also identify any positions that could be occupied by people with disabilities, and then open the recruitment for the positions,” Agus stated, adding that he would make sure that the quota of two percent employees with disabilities would be fulfilled in the future.

Indonesian Union for the Blind (Pertuni) general chairperson Aria Indrawati appreciated the city administration’s move to accommodate people with disabilities. The government, she said, needed to initiate the action so that it could be followed by other parties.

In recruiting the disabled, Aria added that the administration had to consult with various communities of people with disabilities to know their capabilities and which positions are suitable for them.

With the different educational backgrounds that people with disabilities had, Aria said, the administration could employ them in a number of positions.

“Those with an educational background in economy, for example, could work as Financial Bureau staffers, while those who are computer experts could manage Qlue, as part of the Jakarta smart city program,” Aria said.

She added that the administration should pay special attention to they way it recruited new employees.

The recruitment mechanism should be disabled friendly.

She claimed that the online system implemented currently by the administration in selecting new employees had yet to be friendly to visually impaired people.

The administration, therefore, had to work with it.