Book Review

Handbook on Employment of Persons with Disabilities

It’s not what you’d call a bestseller really, but the Handbook on Employment of Persons with Disabilities in Government of India packs in far more information than Dan Brown. This 500-odd-pager may eventually live longer in public memory than many other paperbacks which arrive on bookshelves with a bang. And, at a time when the country is still debating the issue of reservation, this publication is a novel effort to set the records straight for a few unsung people who also have a right to the reservation pie, even if that’s a minor three per cent.

That, in short, is how one could describe the handbook on Employment of Persons with Disabilities in Government of India, released a few weeks ago by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in an attempt to sum up and simplify the nuances of Indian law – in this case, the Disabilities Act, 1995 – devoted to upholding the cause of disabled citizens seeking employment in the country. Devised as a ready reference, the handbook answers some of the most common queries – as well as a few complex ones – that arise when it comes to giving priority to the disabled over others at the time of employment.

The ambivalence is amply borne out by the fact that compared to other provisions of the Disabilities Act, 1995, employment related provisions have been visiting court-rooms the most, leading to the largest number of judicial pronouncements around them.

Spiraling litigation on various aspects of the right to work for persons with disability motivated the Commission to review the safeguards provided under the Constitution and the various laws especially under the Disabilities Act, 1995. Towards this end, the Commission in partnership with

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Human Rights Law Network (HRLN), which is a national network of legal aid centers around the country, undertook the analysis of some fifteen hundred cases and complaints. Study of these cases revealed that on the one hand disability rights jurisprudence is picking up momentum, and on the other, prejudice, ignorance and insensitivity continue to hamper realization of rights. Hardly any systematic effort has been made towards removing the inconsistencies in the administrative rules and procedures. Some modifications have come about but largely with intervention of judiciary.

Rajeev Raturi, an advocate at the New Delhi – based Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) says that of all the grievances that filter into their office, nearly 80% are related to employment. Most of the disputes arise out of a lack of knowledge of the appropriate procedures that need to be followed while employing people with disabilities.

Anuradha Mohit, a long-time activist for people with disabilities, and one of the book’s two co-authors says that the complexity of the law makes the issue of employment a common problem for both employers and employees.

Several such intricacies, such as the degree of impairment in vision, hearing or locomotor disabilities that deem a candidate ineligible for selection, or the various kinds of allowances and privileges that the disabled are entitled to in the workplace, have been touched upon in the handbook. One of the more critical issues dealt with is the several clauses of exemption – mentioned in section 33 of the Act – which offices can resort to in order to dissolve the stipulated reservation. Mohit says that this issue has invited much debate in the past, since the dominant mindset within the public sector is biased largely against the employment of the disabled.

Mohit added that in around 1998-99, the University Grants Commission refused to employ disabled teachers, saying it would be difficult for them to build strong relations with students. Around the same time, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited rejected a candidate applying for the post of a legal officer, saying that the work in the establishment was related to heavy engineering and it was hence not a suitable environment for the disabled. Clearly, these are excuses that offices tend to come up with in trying to by-pass the disabled.

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Disabled rights activist Javed Abidi feels that the bias is well entrenched in the popular psyche as well. He pointed out that before the Disabilities Act was drafted to set the records straight, the three per cent reservation, originally provided for in the Seventies, was available only in the C and D categories. It was as if the disabled could become ‘chaprasis’ but not managers. He added that things were relatively better now, and the handbook was a welcome intervention in the direction of empowering the disabled through knowledge. But then, he isn’t quite sure if and when certain basic flaws within the system – which could eventually push the handbook into the domain of redundancy in the future-will be rectified.

The first issue as is suggested by the handbook’s name is the employment of the disabled in the private sector. Abidi said that the government had no guidelines for the private sector, but promises to offer incentives to employers who employ the disabled. However, till now no one has spelt out what these incentives actually were. That, effectively, continues to hold up the employment of the disabled in the private sector. Secondly, in the public sector, the law states that jobs meant for the disabled need to be identified and updated every three years, owing to changing patterns over time. He added that the last identification was done in 2000, and no updation has happened since then.

Lack of initiative?

Maybe, says S.K.Rungta, general secretary, National Federation for the Blind (NFB). He says that the government recently revised the executive instruction for the employment of the disabled, which was passed by the department of personnel and training in December, 2005. But the instruction is yet to come into action.

Public interest litigation (PIL) is perhaps the ultimate recourse critics can resort to, and that’s precisely what is on the cards, says Rungta. Meanwhile, the book is what people have on their side. A few copies of the book have also been printed in Braille.

The Handbook is arranged in fifteen chapters. About one hundred and fifty questions have been catalogued and responded to. The answers familiarize the readers with various aspects of employment in accordance with the law, rules and relevant procedures. For proper consideration of court law, examples of jurisprudence have also been cited under relevant questions.

Source: Disabled, but not less able. 14 June, 2006, The Telegraph, Kolkata.

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