Wasnik urges corporates to address employment needs of PwDs

Union Minister of Social Justice & Empowerment Mukul Wasnik today urged the corporate sector to join hands with the Government to meet the employment needs of people with disabilities (PwDs).

Inaugurating "Enable India 2010", an international conference and exhibition here, Mr Wasnik said the employment needs of PwDs were a major social and economic challenge.

He said concerted efforts were needed to change the mid-set of the people and removing the negative attitude that people had towards PwDs.

The theme of the conference is "Challenges of Inclusive Growth - Empowering Persons with Disabilities".

The Minister said it was unfortunate that the employment rate of PwDs had come down from 42.7 per cent in the early 1990s to 37.6 per cent in the early 2000s.

He said that, as per rough estimates, less than one per cent of the posts in the public sector were filled by people with disabilities.

"This conference is thus important as several senior executives from large corporates are participating in the conference to try and make a difference" he said.

Mr Wasnik said efforts were needed to integrate workers with disabilities into the workplace and help them overcome barriers.

He said the Government was committed to provide equal opportunity to all in securing access to credit and to employment opportunities. He said the Government was mandated to provide reservation in employment to persons with disabilities.

He told the gathering that a special recruitment drive was launched on November 27, 2009 to clear the backlog of vacancies in posts reserved for PwDs by July 15 this year.

NNN