Despite the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 requiring 4 percent reservation for persons with disabilities (PWDs) in government jobs, the job sector in India has barely any representation from the PWDs community. To make matters worse, there is a consistent pattern of “job exclusion” in government recruitment for people with disabilities, activists alleged.
More than 70 percent of working-age PwDs are unemployed in the country, claims a report from Equiv.in, a recruiting platform that cited government data for the numbers. The report adds that only 34 lakh of the approximately 1.34 crore PwDs of working age are employed in India. In addition, data from the 2011 census shows that in 35 of the 36 states and Union Territories, most PwDs were out of service. The only exception was Nagaland, where 51.92 percent of the PwD population worked.
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The reservation policy has been watered down as both the central and state governments have time and again exempted jobs from the reservation category. This brings down the very limited job opportunities for PWDs.
Remove reservation for people with disabilities
By 2021, the Center exempted all categories of posts under the Indian Police and Indian Railways Protection Force, including some other government departments, from providing 4 percent reservation in employment for persons with disabilities. A notice in the paper also exempts the police forces of Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli from the reservation provision under the law.
Furthermore, in a separate notification in 2021, the government exempted all categories of combatant personnel posts of central armed police forces such as Border Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force, Central Industrial Security Force, Indo Tibetan Border Police, Sashastra Seeria Bal and Assam. Rifles of the provisions of the reservation. In 2018, the government had exempted all categories of combatant personnel posts in the armed forces from the provision.
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These job waivers have been reported in all categories of positions in services including IPS, doctors, etc. Emphasizing similar struggles for recruitment in top medical institutes like All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Dr. Satendra Singh, co-founder of Doctors with Handicap, says: “We recently wrote to the Ministry of Family Welfare to emphasize that several functions in the doctor’s framework have not been identified for people with disabilities. For example, the new AIIMs do not identify jobs for the visually impaired in the field of physiology.”
This pattern of job cuts has provoked strong reactions from disability rights activists, who argue that these moves violate the spirit of the provisions allowing reservation under the RPWD Act. Activists argue that a lack of periodic evaluation every three years and little to no attempts to fill vacancies are reasons for the minimal participation of PWDs in government jobs. They add that many PWDs also drop out of the job market due to insufficient facilities from employers.
No flexibility in job criteria
dr. Satendra adds that regardless of the small jobs announced then, many remain vacant because there is no flexibility in criteria. This means that if there is a vacancy for a position and the job criteria allow a person with a leg disability to apply, people with motor disabilities in both legs or one arm or any other disability are not eligible to apply. Activists call this discrimination on the basis of disability.
Monika Dhankhar, 36, who has a locomotive in one arm and one leg, has been working as a nurse officer for the Delhi government for the past five years. Last year, when she wanted to apply for the position of lecturer in nursing at Lady Hardinge Medical College, she found she could not apply for the position because the criteria for the job was that people with only one leg disability could apply.
Following this, Dhankhar filed a case with the Court of Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs), which recently ruled in her favor. “I have been working as a nurse practitioner for five years and the position I applied for is a teaching position and is easier compared to my current position. However, I was not allowed to apply for the position. Why?” She adds: “Even before checking our suitability for a position, the recruiters assume that a particular job can only be done by a person with a disability in one leg and not another person with a disability. .”
The court said in its verdict that the medical university has discriminated against people with disabilities on the basis of “one arm and one leg” criteria. The court further asked the recruiters to delete the ad and report the vacancies again.
Monika lamented: “This is the case with multiple job openings and for every job recruitment, PWDs have to go the extra mile to challenge the system to get our rights. Many are often unable to fight lawsuits and eventually fall from the world of work and are unable to lead an independent life.”
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Shameer Rishad, chairman of the Javed Abidi Foundation (JAF), says:
“Many skilled and qualified PwD applicants do not get a job because of these very strict criteria. This frees up multiple positions for PwPs, causing more unemployment in the community. This calls for flexibility in the recruitment criteria. Candidates should be judged by their skills and not by their body parts. This is only possible if employers overcome their prejudice that PwPs cannot work.”
vacant posts
Recently, Rajya Sabha was informed in a written reply by the Union Ministry of Education that about 344 posts for the category of PWDs are vacant in central universities across India.
In another incident, the Court of Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) in a recent order advised the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), New Delhi, to fill vacancies that had been reserved for PWDs, who have been working for more than 14 years.
Activists Demand More Seriousness When Hiring PwDs
Activists demand annual data on job vacancies submitted by PwPs and timely assessment of job openings. They claim that while India has a comprehensive legal framework through the RPDA, however, only symbolic efforts are being made to even implement them and employ prosecutors.
Muralidharan, the secretary general of the National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD), said: “Unlike a few years ago, technology has now helped PwPs in a variety of ways and enabled them to do more work. In that context, vacancies for the PWDs should increase, but the reality is against that.”
Arman Ali, the executive director of the National Center for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People’s (NCEPEDP), Arman Ali, said: “With reasonable assistance and assistive technology, many PwPs can be included in the workforce. For example, for the past two decades, Parkinson’s patients have demanded work-from-home facilities, but this has been refused for several reasons. However, the Covid-19 pandemic brought in the culture of WFH overnight. This is one of many examples showing that the government has little interest in involving the parquet in the labor market.”
He added that there is also a need for bold government campaigns for the inclusion of PwPs and to raise awareness about disabilities among people.
This story was produced as part of the Laadli Media Fellowship 2022
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