New Delhi: Private sector has given a
"dismal" response to a government incentive scheme for
providing jobs to the disabled, Rajya Sabha was informed
Thursday.
"We had a lot of expectations (from the scheme) but the
response has been dismal," Minister of Social Justice and
Welfare Mukul Wasnik said while replying to a Calling
Attention on discrimination faced by the disabled.
The Finance Minister had announced in the 2008 budget a
scheme under which the employers' contribution for the
disabled employees would be borne by the government for three
years.
"It was expected that a large number of industrial houses
will respond....but unfortunately I will have to admit this
incentive scheme has not got the type of response, we had
expected," Wasnik said adding that the government is now
attending to it.
He said government was trying to find out why there was
lukewarm response.
As per the 2001 census, there are 2.19 crore with
disabilities in the country, which include visual, hearing,
speech and mental disabilities and they constitute 2.13 per
cent of the total population.
However, members from different parties said the number
was "grossly underestimated".
Wasnik said the issue of counting has been taken up with
the Registrar General of India and hoped correct figures would
emerge after 2011 census.
He said that the government proposed to bring a new
"holistic and forward looking" legislation for persons with
the disabilities.
A committee, consisting of experts and representatives
from various stakeholders has been set up to draft a new
legislation, which would be in tune with the United Nations'
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Wasnik said the entry of disabled people in civil service
has been improved as evident by the selection of ten people in
the coveted IAS between 2006 and 2008, while the intake in
other civil services has risen to 45.
Members cutting across party lines expressed concern over
discrimination being meted out to the disabled, a concern
which the minister also shared.
They said the disabled people are denied access to public
transport, hospitals, schools and other establishments.
They are seen as objects of sympathy, whereas the basic
facilities are the matter of their rights, they said.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, August 26, 2010, 16:28