Depts asked to check posts for the disabled

All Delhi government departments have been given two months to come up with a policy to identify jobs that they consider fit or unfit for acid attack survivors and persons diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, dyslexia, autism, dwarfism and thalassemia among others.

The policy pertaining to each such job has to be published in the department’s website, senior government officials said on Thursday. The decision was taken in a meeting on Thursday which was organised by Delhi’s social welfare department to discuss modalities of the city government’s Equal Opportunity Policy (EOP).

“Most government departments clearly identify posts they consider fit or unfit for people with disabilities that come under the old set of seven recognised categories. They include locomotor disabilities, visual impairment, hearing impairment, cerebral palsy and mental illnesses,” said Satender Singh, an activist working with persons of disabilities who was present in Thursday’s meeting.

Singh said, “But that does not generally happen for the 14 categories, which were later included in the ambit of the law. They include Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, haemophilia, thalassemia, dwarfism, spectrum disorder, dyslexia, autism and survivors of acid attack. This has to change.”

“Any person with disability transferred or inducted in any government post has to have clarity about the job’s requirements in terms of physical and mental attributes. The individuals cannot be subjected to the whims and fancies of their supervisors,” he said.

Under the Delhi Rights of Persons with Disabilities Rules, notified by the Delhi government in 2018, all government
departments and private enterprises with more than 20 employees in Delhi are required to draft their own EOPs and make them available in public domain.

“In Delhi’s case, the law provides for setting deadlines and that is what we have followed while giving the two-month window to the government departments to draft EOPs and identify jobs for people with disabilities,” said Delhi’s social welfare minister Rajendra Pal Gautam.

Gautam’s office said that the circular to the effect will be issued by the end of this week.