despite Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 4 percent reservation is mandatory for Persons with Disabilities (PWD) in government jobs, the job sector India There is hardly any representation of the PWD community. To make matters worse, there has been a consistent pattern of ‘except reservation in jobs’ in government recruitment for people with disabilities, alleged workers.
More than 70 percent of PWDs of employable age are unemployed in the country, as claimed in a report by Equiv.in, a recruitment platform, which cited government data for the numbers. The report said that out of about 1.34 crore PWDs of employable age in India, only 34 lakh have jobs. Additionally, 2011 census data shows that in 35 out of 36 states and union territories, most PWDs were not employed. The only exception was Nagaland, where 51.92 per cent of the PWD population was working.
Read | From Charging Lakhs to Offering Proxy Candidates, Is Exam ‘Scribe Service’ Turning Into ‘Business’?
The reservation policy has been weakened as the central and state governments periodically exempt jobs from the reservation category. It brings down very limited job vacancies for PWD.
Removal of reservation for people with disabilities
In 2021, the Center exempted all categories of posts under the Indian Police Service and the Indian Railway Protection Force, including certain other government services, from the provision of 4 per cent reservation in employment for persons with benchmark disabilities. Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli police services have been exempted from the reservation provision under the Act, in a gazette notification.
In addition, in a separate notification in 2021, the government has also announced that the posts of all categories of combat personnel of Central Armed Police Forces such as Border Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force, Central Industrial Security Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Armed Syria Force and Assam Exempted. Rifles from the provisions of reservation. In 2018, the government exempted all categories of combat personnel posts in the armed forces from the provision.
These job relaxations are mentioned in all categories of posts in services including IPS, Doctor etc. Highlighting similar struggles for recruitment in top medical institutions like All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Dr Satendra Singh, co-founder of Doctors. The handicapped says, “We have recently written to the Ministry of Family Welfare that many posts in the doctor cadre have not been identified for people with disabilities. For example, the new AIIMS will identify jobs for visually impaired people in the field of physics. are not doing.”
This pattern of job losses has drawn strong backlash from disability rights activists, who claim that these moves are against the spirit of the provisions allowing reservation under the RPWD Act. Activists claim that the lack of periodic review every three years and no effort to fill up the posts is the reason for the minimal participation of PWDs in government jobs. They say that many PWDs also get pushed out of the job market due to inadequate facilities provided by the employers.
No flexibility in job criteria
Dr Satendra says that many of the small jobs that are announced are left vacant due to flexibility in criteria. This means that if there is a job vacancy for a post and the job criteria allows a person with disability of one leg to apply, then those with locomotor disability in both legs or one arm or any other disability are not eligible to apply. Will be Activists call this discrimination based on disability.
Thirty-six-year-old Monika Dhankhar, who has a locomotive disability in one hand and one leg, has been working as a nursing officer for the Delhi government for the past five years. Last year, when she wanted to apply for the post of Nursing Tutor at Lady Hardinge Medical College, she came to know that she could not apply for the post as the criterion for the job was that those with disability of only one leg. Only people can apply.
Subsequently, Dhankhar filed a case in the Court of Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities (PWD), which has recently ruled in his favour. “I am working as a Nursing Officer for the last five years and the post I applied for is a teaching post and is easier than my current position. Still, I need to apply for the post. Permission not granted. Why?” She adds, “Even before we check our ability for a position, recruiters assume that a certain job can be done by a person with a disability in only one leg and not another person with a disability.”
The court, in its judgment, said that the medical college discriminated against people with disabilities on the basis of ‘one arm and one leg’. The court further asked the recruiters to cancel the advertisement and re-notify the vacancies.
Monika laments, “This is the case in many vacancies and for every job recruitment, PWDs have to go an extra mile to challenge the system to get our entitlements. Often, many people are not able to fight court cases and eventually, are out of the world of employment and unable to lead an independent life.”
Read also | SSC CPO Recruitment 2022: Applications open for 4300 sub-inspector posts in CAPF, Delhi Police
Shamir Rishad, Convener of Javed Abidi Foundation (JAF), says,
“Many skilled and qualified PWD applicants do not get jobs because of these very stringent criteria. Hence, many posts for PWDs are left vacant, leading to more unemployment in the community. It demands flexibility in the recruitment criteria. Candidates should be assessed on their skills and not on their body parts. This can be done only when employers remove their prejudice that PWDs cannot work.
vacant post
Recently, in a written reply, Rajya Sabha was informed by the Union Ministry of education That there are about 344 vacancies for PWD category in Central Universities across India.
In another incident, the Court of the Commissioner of Persons with Disabilities (PWD) in a recent order had recommended the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), New Delhi to fill up the vacancies reserved for PWDs, which have been held for more than one year. was kept pending for time. 14 years.
The workers demanded more seriousness in giving employment to the disabled
Demanding annual data on vacancies filed by PWDs and timely review of vacancies, activists claim that India has a comprehensive legal framework through RPDAs, however, only indicative efforts to implement them and employ PWDs are done.
Muraleedharan, general secretary of the National Forum for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD), says, “Unlike a few years back, technology has now aided the disabled in various ways and enabled them to work more. In this context, job vacancies for PWD should increase, but the reality is the opposite.”
Armaan Ali, Executive Director, National Center for Employment Promotion for Persons with Disabilities (NCEEPEDP), says, “With proper support and support technology many PWDs can be included in the workforce. For example, PWD work for the last two decades were demanding from home facilities, but they were denied citing various reasons. However, the covid-19 pandemic brought the culture of WFH overnight. This is one of the many examples that show That the government is not interested in including the handicapped in the job sector in the government sector.”
He said that there is also a need to run campaigns on behalf of the government to involve the disabled and increase awareness about the disabilities among the people.
This story is about Ladli Media Fellowship 2022. prepared as part of
read the breaking news And today’s fresh news Here