According to The Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995, out of the 15,000 jobs 450 jobs are to be reserved for the disabled but currently only 300 are working in government offices.
Disabilities Rights Association of Goa (DRAG) President Avelino de Sa said the reason for this was due to lack of awareness among the disabled.
“As per the act, not only the Central and State governments, but also those receiving grants from the government should have jobs reserved for the disabled. The main reason this is not happening is because people are not applying for these positions. Last year, the government did take the initiative however,” said de Sa.
Advocate Satish Sonak who has also been involved in raising his voice on issues concerning the disabled said that while the rules and regulations were on paper, it was the implementation that was lacking.
“The local government has for a long time been saying that there was a need to help the disabled. Currently, on paper everything is good, but the implementation is very less. What needs to be looked into is that the 3 percent should be increased and not limited and there is also the need to look into identifying suitable people for these positions,” said Sonak.
The Supreme Court in a recent order passed called for a central inter-ministerial panel to be constituted to look into matters concerning the disabled community.
Sonak said the court’s decision was welcome and should be made applicable not only to the Centre, but State governments as well.
De Sa believes that an inter-ministerial panel is crucial “not only for the ministers to understand our issues but also to make them accountable for it especially since the State Coordination Committee Meeting that should ideally be held once in two months is being held once in two years.”
DRAG last week held a dharna to protest the neglect of people with disabilities demanding that the government resolve all issues in one month failing which they would resort to a hunger strike.
“The modified scheme for children with special needs has not yet come into force even though three years have passed and another academic year will be starting shortly. The prize money for the Special Olympics children amounting to Rs 25 lakh is still not paid to them even though three years have passed. The lift is still not installed in Institute Menezes Braganza even though the Minister of Art and Culture Dayanand Mandrekar assured us in November 2014 that he would do it in three months,” said de Sa.
