Job market not so open for physically challenged: Data

According to offcials at the disability commissioner’s office,the district employment agency keeps all records of employment and when contacted,Mahesh Deshpande of the office said,”There is a huge gap between number of applications received and number of people recruited. We see we are not getting necessary skills sought by the job market,although some companies have come forward to recruit physically challenged. Moreover those with physical challeges pertaining to limbs get more employment opportunities as against visually impaired or hearing and speech impaired people.”

Recruitment,both private and government,was done in three categories: visually impaired,hearing and speech impaired and those with limb impairments. “The employment ratio is definitely more for the private sector as compared to government sector,” he adds.

Improper implementation of Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities,Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act,and even lack of proper training is responsible for the poor recruitment scenario,say senior officials of the disability commissioner’s office.

Minita Patel,manager,Bal Kalyan Sanstha,adds,”We have not been able to train persons with disabilities for specific requirements. If companies come forward to train them and take them,it would be helpful. Moreover,we need to have more educational opportunities for these people so that they can get better positions.”

Anita Iyer,co-founder of Ekansh,an organisation to bring about more inclusion through awareness for the disability sector,says they have been conducting job fairs to which there has been an enthusiastic response. “Things are definitely improving but we still have to see more response from the job sector” she said.

Yogesh Bhangale,Human Resource manager with a multinational company looking to fill positions in his company,said they would train persons. “We have finished the first round and selected some candidates. We would be working on recruiting more persons,” he adds.

However,the disability commissioner’s office says while private companies are keen on coming forward,the mandatory filling up of positions in about 200 government organisations is not being done. “There are hardly any positions opening up and there is no review on this front,” said an official.

The employment office has records of this year till July. Pune division with 9,894 registrations has seen only 39 candidates selected,five visually impaired,12 speech and hearing impaired and 22 with limb disability putting the average at a low of 0.41 per cent while Pune district too has not fared well with 3,417 registrations and only five selected so far.