Everyone of us reads, thinks, feels and then forgets most
of the times. The same is applicable also to the persons
with different abilities. Take the case of Sachin, an youngster
with disability. He just could overcome his disability with
his brains and could perform very well in academics. Then,
there was the task of finding a suitable job which could
match his academic credentials. Every time the words "we
will get back to you" made him feel more disabled than
the disability. The opinions s formed just by distorted
face, eyes, lisping and other deformities are just not justified.
The very fact that Sachin could make it to the interview
because of his credentials is a point to prove.
When the
job demands intellectual abilities to perform, which Sachin
is capable of, the physical restrictions imposed by disability
can be mitigated by making suitable modifications in his
work environment. So, the question is how long can we go
about like this? Can the corporate outlook be changed in
this regard? The very fact that there is no dearth of human
resources is irrefutable but the right human resource for
the right job is always at stake because often the perceptions
and impressions influence the decisions. In lieu of this,
are human resources of the disabled challenged? Let us see
the facts and figures related to the employment of persons
with disabilities to get a glimpse of "opportunities
denied due to disability".
The disabled people constitute a significant 5-6% of the
population of India, which is about approximately 70 million
people. Only 0.1 million are employed in industries till
now. A survey was conducted by National Centre for Promotion
of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) in India, in
1999 among the top 100 companies to study the employment
practices vis-à-vis disabled people. It was found
that most companies did not employ disabled persons. Some
interesting facts that were revealed included that the average
employment rate of disabled people in the private sector
was only 0.28%, while the public sector showed an employment
rate of 0.54%. The figure in multinational companies in
the country was a mere 0.05%. Of the 100 companies to which
the questions were sent, only 70 responded. The total number
of employees in these companies was 7,96,363 of which 3,160
were disabled persons, including the visually impaired—9.87%,
those suffering from loco-motor impairment—70.57%,
speech and hearing impaired—8.26%, the mentally retarded—0.66%,
those with other disabilities—1.87%, comprising 0.4%
of the employees. People with loco-motor disability were
the most commonly employed.
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