RESERVATION ROW : PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
New Delhi, Aug. 13: For the first time, a job quota will be thrust on the private sector if the government accepts a panel’s recommendation for reservations for the disabled and turns it into law.
The government-instituted committee has suggested extending to the private sector the 3 per cent reservation for the physically challenged that now exists in government jobs.
It also wants a 5 per cent quota introduced for disabled students in private educational institutions and an additional 1 per cent reservation for wards of the disabled.
These quotas will also apply to government institutions that now reserve 3 per cent of their seats for the disabled.
The suggestions came yesterday at a committee meeting attended by social justice and empowerment ministry officials.
The Centre had formed the committee in April this year and asked it to draft a law to replace the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995. The panel is headed by Sudha Kaul, founder of the India Institute of Cerebral Palsy, Calcutta.
A ministry official said the government was likely to accept the recommendations. “The private sector too has some social responsibilities and the government believes that there needs to be a joint effort for the uplift of the disabled,” he said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had earlier said that affirmative action should not be “pushed down anybody’s throat” but reminded corporate houses of their social responsibilities. But sources said the government’s attempts to lure industry with incentives — such as tax exemptions and other benefits — to employ more people from disadvantaged sections such as Dalits and the disabled had not worked.
The government had promised to pay, for three years, the employer’s contribution to the Employees Provident Fund and Employees State Insurance for physically challenged employees in the private sector with monthly salaries up to Rs 25,000.
“The incentive scheme was not effective at all. The disabled will be benefited only if it is made mandatory,” said a committee member, Bhushan Punani of the Blind People's Association.
However, experience has shown that even reservation may not always work.
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