The future, according to the manual
The Youth Building the Future program announces that it now ‘contemplates’ the inclusion of people with disabilities. It sounds good on the digital platform: a section to mark if you have a condition, promises that it will not be an obstacle. The theory is impeccable.
Practice, as always, is another story. Twelve months of training, almost ten thousand pesos a month and medical insurance. The package sounds attractive to any young person between 18 and 29 years old. Especially if access to formal employment continues to be an extreme sport.
Work centers must guarantee accessible, safe spaces free of discrimination.
There is the jewel in the crown in the statement. The tutors, the signage, the access free of obstacles. All under the supervision of the Ministry of Labor. A perfect checklist for an institutional photograph.
But one reads ‘reasonable adjustments’ and remembers how many times that phrase remains on paper. Companies ‘obliged’ to offer support. Recent history tells us that manual obligations clash with the real culture of many workplaces.
The program puts the ball in the court of the ‘work centers’. Design plans, contemplate conditions. It is a very elaborate toast to the sun. The question is not what the website says, but how many tutors are actually trained and how many ramps are decorative.
Inclusion as part of a ‘strategy’. It sounds like something added after the fact, not the heart of the original design. One reviews precedents from other programs and memory hurts: the accessory usually remains in the first budget cut.
It is announced with great fanfare, but skepticism is a basic journalistic tool. We’ll see in a year if the adjustments were reasonable or just reasons to fill out yet another government report.
