NEW DELHI, December 3: Yadav D Zope from Maharashtra is unhappy that traffic junctions do not have auditory signals. Zope, who is attending a summit for the disabled that began in the Capital on Wednesday, also feels that the Disability Act should help the disabled to get jobs. And his solution is to set up cross-disability workshops where people with different disabilities can work together and where the ability of one can be a substitute for the handicap of the other.The two-day national disability convention, which is being organised by the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People to mark Disability Day today, has brought together around 300 disabled people. Suresh Sarode, another delegate from Maharashtra, told Express Newsline that the Government should begin identifying jobs for the disabled, but must allow the handicapped do the identification themselves. ``Other people do not know what we can do. There are many people who are law graduates and others who can teach. But they are working as telephone operators,'' Sarode said.For Baldev Gulati and Leeladhar, the conference was a reunion of sorts. Both had worked together in Jhunjhunu in Chidava (Rajasthan). Leeladhar, an orthopaedically handicapped person, still works there and is an accountant with an NGO. Gulati, who is blind, is now welfare officer in the Directorate of Social Welfare.Both dismiss the belief that initiative on their part, as opposed to Government effort, can help them achieve their demands. They were referring to an appeal by Disabilities Chief Commissioner B L Sharma to the disabled to stop waiting for Government help and approach local bodies themselves and ask for the changes they need. Leeladhar said that he had asked the Collector at Jhunjhunu to have a ramp made to enable wheelchair-bound people to meet him. But two flights of stairs still remain between him and the Collector.Leeladhar, however, believes that the biggest hurdle before them is the attitude of ordinary people. ``If we go to a government office we are asked to wait outside as if we cannot speak for ourselves,'' he says.Speakers at the conference suggested ways to help make the disabled self-sufficient. Rahul Bajaj, CMD of Bajaj Auto Ltd, said that job reservations for the disabled should be on the condition that the employer has the right to sack the inefficient worker at will. And while he gets this right, he must be bound to keep three per cent of jobs for the disabled.B L Sharma said that the Disability Act would be translated into all languages soon so that the disabled can be aware of their rights and get them.
