Employment opportunities for disabled bleak in Northeast

Of the 17 per cent employed disabled people, women constitute just four per cent, according to a study conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, in collaboration with an NGO called "Shishu Sarothi".

''The primary aim of the study was to assess the employment needs of persons with disability so that it would be possible to make appropriate intervention on livelihood issues,'' Shishu Sarothi's Project Cooridnator Monideepa Choudhury said.

The study reveals that 51.7 per cent of the disabled people are afflicted with vision impairment, 18.9 per cent with locomotor disability, 15.5 per cent with hearing impairment, 6.9 per cent with mental retardation, five per cent with speech retardation and 1.9 per cent with mental illness.

Also 0.3 per cent of them have 'developmental' and multiple disability.

The study further reveals that about 80 per cent of the organisations do not follow the government norms of fulfilling the mandated three per cent reservation of people with disabilities as per the PWD Act of 1995.

Another major problem being faced by people with disabilities is that almost half of the population do not have a disability certificate, a handicap which bars them from all employment opportunities. MORE