In a bid to provide livelihood opportunities for ‘Divyang’ persons and make them actualize their dream to earn descent livelihood and carve niche for themselves by becoming role models for other people in society, a job fair for persons with disabilities (PwD) was organized today at Zila School School premises by Jharkhand State livelihood Promotion Society (JSPlS) in collaboration with Sightsavers, an NGO.
Around 25 employers participated in the fair and took the suitable candidates as per the position required for their respective companies. Approximately 1000 job seekers falling in several differently-abled categories interacted with few corporate representatives and were even interviewed by the firms for recruiting them in their companies at different posts.
State government too feels that linking ‘Divyang’ people into mainstream will add to the existing human resources to yield better results. “As per the government guidelines, 4 per cent reservation in government sector is assured to differently-abled people. However, creation of proper network to channelize people with special needs, proper utilization of social networking sites and creation of helpline numbers must be done to provide benefits to differently abled people,” said, Director, Secondary Education, Dr Manish Ranjan.
“Opportunity never comes to any one without putting effort. I am a graduate. Getting associated with some big corporate firms or any government units is my dream and more then that I too want to contribute to my family income as well like my other siblings,” said a candidate.
Few big corporate giants from IT firms, hospitality sectors, travel and tour companies including some non-government organizations (NGOs) were present in the job fair.
“Under the sustainability programme and different CSR activities, the company believes in absorbing people from various sects of society. For linking ‘Divyang’ in some constructive jobs, a sustainable training programme for differently-abled people is proposed under company’s norms as well,” said, Radisson Blu representative, Madhulika Das.
Notably, just providing employment to the differently-abled person will not serve the purpose. Challenges like retaining ‘Divyang’ youths in their respective chosen sectors, job identification as per their ability, accessibility, providing proper work environment and culture including conducting regular training under skilled personnel need to be addressed at earliest asserted the experts present on the occasion.
As per the new norms, Rights of Persons with Disability Bill passed in November 2016 have identified and covered as many as 21 disability types which was earlier only restricted to six types. Covering around 21 disability types, the total number of differently abled people has eventually increased to 7 per cent now.
According to a survey report of an NGO, only 0 .58 ‘Divyang’ are employed at IT firms across India, at Ministries approximately 3.5 per cent differently abled people work. Most ‘Divyang’ are self-employed or are associated with any Self Help Groups (SHGs) covering 48 per cent of their total population.