CURRENT STATUS OF EMPLOYMENT OF DISABLED PEOPLE IN INDIAN INDUSTRIES

Javed Abidi*

INTRODUCTION

Even though disabled people constitute a significant 5 to 6 percentage of the population of India, their needs for meaningful employment remain unmet, in spite of the implementation of the `The People with Disabilities' Act three years ago, which reserves 3% of all categories of jobs in the government sector for disabled persons (1). Of the approximately 70 million people with disabilities in India, only about 0.1 million have succeeded in getting employment in the industries till now. The industries can however, play a more emphatic role because of their vast employment generating potential and the financial power.

This study was conducted by the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People, an organisation working as an interface between the government, industry, non-governmental organisations and international agencies, to promote employment opportunities for people with disabilities in India. The aim of the study was to identify the current practices of Indian industry with regard to the employment of disabled people, 3 years after the `The People with Disabilities' Act was passed. This Act reserves 3% of all categories of jobs in the public sector industries for disabled persons, and incentives for public and private sector companies, that have at least 5% of their workforce comprising of disabled persons.

METHODOLOGY

For the purpose of the study, a sample of 100 corporate houses was chosen, by including in the sample all the corporate houses listed in the `Super 100 ranking of the corporate sector' by `Business India', a leading business magazine in India. The listing was carried out by the magazine by ranking Indian industry on four parameters, such as sales, profits, assets and market capitalisation for the financial year 1997-98 (2). Twenty three companies in this sample were public sector companies, while 63 were private sector Indian companies and 14 were multinational companies. A questionnaire which elicited the total number of employees of the company, the number of disabled persons who were employed and the types of disabilities found in them, was mailed to all the 100 companies in the sample, in January 1999. The responses were collected by end of March 1999.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Of the 100 companies to whom the questions were sent, only 70 responded. The total number of employees in these companies was 7,96,363 of which 3160 were disabled persons' consisting of 0.4% of the employees. Among the companies who responded, 50 (71.43%) companies had employed disabled persons.

Table 1: Classification of respondents

Table 2: Types of disability among the disabled employees

Table 3:Disabled persons as a percentage of the workforce in different companies

In the sample of companies selected for the study, the rate of employment of disabled persons was only 0.4% of the total work force, only 13% of what the `The People with Disabilities' Act prescribes as desirable. Out of the 70 respondent companies, 20 do not employ any disabled persons at all, while in 40 companies the percentage of the workforce with disabilities range between 0.01% to 0.99%, and in only 10 companies they were above 1%. Many public sector companies also do not employ disabled persons, even though it is legally binding on them to fill 3% in all categories of jobs with disabled people. No company in the sample employed disabled persons above the 2% level, way below the 5% level to claim the incentives guaranteed to them if they employ disabled persons. Disabled people with loco-motor disability were the group most commonly employed, probably because they are less severely disabled, and people with mental retardation are rarely employed, probably due to the stigma attached to mental retardation.

This study provides the preliminary evidence that even after three years of implementing a policy of job reservation for the disabled persons through a law, the targets achieved fall short grossly, to 13% of the desirable level. Even this level of achievement is only fulfilled through the employment of people with a relatively mild degree of disability. In spite of the coercion by the government, there are limiting factors that prevent employment of disabled persons in industries. There is an urgent need to identify these factors that hinder employment of disabled people, and to take corrective measures, to enlarge the potential of their rehabilitation and social integration.

*National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People, 25, Green Park Extn., Yusaf Sarai, New Delhi 110 016, India.
Tel & Fax: 91-11-6854306,
E-mail : ncped@nde.vsnl.net.in

REFERENCES

1. Government of India. The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation)Act. Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, New Delhi, 1995.

2. Super 100 ranking of the corporate sector. Business India, Bombay 1998; Nov 16: 57-98

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