When a business is not just a tool for generating profits

International Day of Persons with Disabilities 2022 is celebrated on December 3rd. The activities involve people with physical, sensory, intellectual or mental disabilities. Those who are not indifferent to the full participation of people with disabilities in the development of society and the state as a whole join the celebration.

The purpose of the holiday is to draw the attention of the population to the problems of people who have lost their ability to work, to protect their rights, freedoms and dignity, and the opportunity for their participation in public life.

But today, in my opinion, people with disabilities have taken their niche in society. Namely, their desire to live and integrate into the social environment is a clear example of a decent, fulfilling life.

“Business has long been not just a tool for generating profits. It is not enough for him to produce products or provide services. A modern entrepreneur wants to change the city, the world, the consciousness of people. He understands that his experience and knowledge can be used to improve the social environment. He has many of his own ideas. But he himself is ready to help people who can offer effective and viable tools for solving social problems. In achieving these goals, he seeks support and understanding from the state and society,” says Mikhail Osokin, Deputy Chairman of the All-Russian Public Organization “All-Russian Society of the Disabled”, Regional Development Director.

Thanks to modern technology, the world has become more accessible. Today, a person with disabilities, even living in the Russian outback, has the opportunity to develop his business, offer online services online.

But this is not the limit: disabled people have long proved their ability to work and are expanding the boundaries of communication. Oleg Kolpashchikov, a visually impaired businessman from Yekaterinburg, is developing the Sails of the Spirit program very successfully. The project partner is Rosatom. In the project, one third of the participants are people with disabilities. This year alone, the participants of the Sails of the Spirit project visited Armenia, Egypt and Turkey.

… A resident of the Lipetsk region Roman Bobylev lives with a severe form of cerebral palsy. At the same time, he managed to open his own business, which is now successfully developing. Roman created a wicker craft workshop to enable people with disabilities to realize themselves in life.

And there are many such examples of successful business conduct by people with disabilities.

But, as we usually do, in every barrel of honey there is a fly in the ointment. And this spoon, in this context, is our Russian legislation. According to Mikhail Osokin, their organization conducted an anonymous survey of people with disabilities. It turned out that in Russia, about 33 percent of them are engaged in business. However, as 16 percent of anonymous participants admitted, they do business by going into the shadows, thus evading taxes. The reason lies in our legal system. After all, if you declare your intentions officially, the receipt of subsidies – disability pensions – is automatically reduced. Yes, and working pensioners are deprived of the opportunity to legally engage in business – otherwise the insurance part of the pension is automatically “frozen”, and no subsidies, pension increases will not shine for them.

In my opinion, this is a flagrant injustice, because the disabled, working pensioners (who, for the most part, are also not very healthy) have already earned pension benefits. Why take away the last, and so not big, crumbs?

It is beneficial to “unfreeze” pensions and benefits for the state: the treasury will simply receive more taxes.

“It is generally accepted that one cannot expect economic sustainability from a social project, that it is impossible to use business models for social activities, that it is unethical to earn income by solving socially significant issues.
Having worked for many years in non-profit organizations, I often encountered situations where interesting and quite popular social projects ceased to exist immediately after the end of grant funding. At the same time, their creators were sharply negative about the possibility of changing their economic basis. I am deeply convinced that these are erroneous and harmful stereotypes,” says Mikhail Osokin.

Nina DONSKIKH.

Photo from the archive of Mikhail Osokin