Employment of Disabled Persons by NGO's in India: Study Paints Bleak Picture, Especially for Women

By Anuradhua Mohit (nab@vsnl.com)

The author was one of the members of the research
team that developed the project findings
which are amply quoted in this article.

The National Association for the Blind and National Centre for promotion of employment for disabled people in India jointly undertook a project to study `Attitudes of Non-Governmental Organisations for the disabled towards disabled persons and sensitivity towards Gender issues'.

Gender segregated data was collected from 119 NGO's spread across the country, some specialising in the single disability area and others in multi-disability. Findings of this study brought forth some amazing and unsettling data. However, most of the findings of this study also revalidate certain other studies undertaken in other parts of the world.

Let us glance at some of the facts and figures about the participation of disabled persons in the working arena. One of the findings established by the study is that women formed only 29.50% of the Executive Bodies and 22.15% of the General Bodies in the participating organisations. The picture of disabled women in decision making is even more dismal, a mere 3.25% in the Executive Bodies and 10.46% in the General Bodies!

In the publication`Women and Disability', Eunice Fiorito and Jim Doherty talk about the male bias and domination of decision-making in rehabilitation organisations. Women who choose rehabilitation as a professional field, somewhere along the line, become abruptly conscious of this situation once they reach a certain level in the hierarchy. They often join as volunteers and are very soon told as to how good they are with their clients! As a result, women tend to be concentrated in just the lower and mid-level positions.

What is stated above, seems to be quite true and is substantiated by our next finding. Out of the total number of professional staff members in the participating organisations, 52.08% are women while only 47.92% are men. Out of the total number of professional staff members, only 12.8% are people with disabilities. Percentage of disabled men is 8.78%, while disabled women are at a low of 4.02%.  Amongst non-professional/ support staff, only 15.48% of the jobs are held by disabled persons. Percentage of disabled men is 11.22%, while women with disabilities are at a marginal 4.27%.

Lowest priority: the girl child
In the education scenario of India, much often goes understood without saying. It is a sad fact that education of the girl child is a low priority for the majority of people in India. The percentage of girls receiving education was 38.76% as found in the study. The disabled girl child thus gets the lowest priority in terms of any services. The NGO's providing vocational training through the study reveal that a large number of them are providing training in Art and handicrafts while a small percentage of them are providing training in Industrial trades. The trend of the training has a direct bearing on the career options and economic status of persons with disabilities.

Placement by NGO's
The findings about placement of disabled persons are not very different from their status exhibited till now. It is observed from the studies that in the last 2 years, a total of 3880 disabled persons have been placed by the NGOs. Out of those who have found placement, 75.12% are men and only 24.88% are women. Moreover, out of the total number of disabled people placed, 51.42% have been placed in self-employment, 23.17% in the private sector, 8.58% in the public/ government sector and 16.83% in other types of jobs (mainly in the social sector itself).

Out of the 3880 disabled persons placed by the participating organisations in the last two years, 50.05% people are earning below Rs. 1,000/- per month. equivalent to U.S. $ 30 p.m.  Another 36.64%  are earning between Rs. 1,000/- to Rs. 2,000/- p.m., i.e. 30 to 60 U.S. $. An additional 9.35% people are earning between Rs. 2,000/- to Rs. 4,000/- p.m. i.e 60 to 120 U.S. $. Finally,  3.81% people are earning between Rs. 4,000/- to Rs. 6,000/- p.m. i.e. 120 to 180 U.S.$; and a mere 0.15% people are earning above Rs. 6,000/- p.m. or say 180 U.S.$.

The findings from the above data become even more stark when one realises that  the minimum wage rates as fixed by the Government in 1997-98 in India at that time were, that no person, putting in a labour (unskilled) of more than 8 hours a day, should be paid less than Rs. 1,937/- p.m. i.e. U.S. $ 58 p.m.  For semi-skilled and skilled labour, the minimum wages fixed during 1997-98 were Rs. 2,103/-(U.S. $ 63)  and Rs. 2,361/- (U.S. $ 70)  respectively. For Graduates, the minimum wage rate applicable is Rs. 2,697/- ( U.S. $ 80).

Note: All the figures translated in U.S. $ are in approximate amounts.

Employment of disabled persons in general
It is obvious from this picture that disabled people are among the poorest of the poor and, here too, women with disability though  equal in statistical proportion, form only 25% of the wage earning disabled population.

To give readers an overall idea of the economic situation of disabled persons in India, it is important to state that there are about 700,000 persons with disability registered with the employment exchanges. Out of these, 100,000 persons with disabilities have been successful in getting employment. Of these 100,000, 90%  have locomotor impairments, about 5 % are hearing impaired and the remaining 5% have visual impairments, ranging from partial vision to total blindness.

What can we infer from these findings?
One can infer from these findings, that for whatever reasons, employers prefer to recruit a person with locomotor disability than those with hearing or sight disabilities.

Out of the employment opportunities available within the NGO sector the study has demonstrated that only about 14% jobs are occupied by disabled persons, whereas at least 85% are held by nondisabled persons.

It is quite possible that the NGO's could not find adequately trained persons with disabilities to appoint to the jobs available with them. At the same time, what is more disturbing is that none of the NGO's have a policy for preferential appointment of persons with disability. This is the case, even though the focus of these NGO's is on community based approach in rehabilitation where disabled persons are supposed to play an equal role as partners in all stages of the project.

The question that arises here is whether the NGO's themselves lack the confidence in the potentials of disabled persons; or the education and training made available to the disabled by NGOs and Government is of the type that the employer does not find the disabled job applicant competent enough to "deliver the goods".

These are the stark realities that need to be addressed. Mere shifting of the responsibility to change what needs to be changed may not lead us anywhere.