The Karnataka State Disabled and Caregivers Federation has demanded better implementation of job reservations for persons with disabilities. The members said several months had passed since the Supreme Court’s deadline to implement the three per cent reservation in government jobs, but no action had been taken by the government.
Speaking during a press conference here on Monday on the eve of International Day of Persons with Disabilities, G.N. Nagaraj, president of the federation, recalled the case of Ashok Dambar from Koppal, a person with disability, who was rejected by the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) although he had the disability identity certificate issued by the government.
The federation members said he was denied a job on the pretext that the certificate had to be in a certain format, and was not even allowed to attend the interview. “The federation has filed a complaint with the KPSC and the complaint is now under consideration,” Mr. Nagaraj added.
Zonal secretary Arpuda Rajan said a protest would be held across the State in January against the meagre budgetary allocation for persons with disabilities, which he said is less than one per cent. About the recruitment of special educators, he said only 600 had been employed against the required 10,000.
“In our State, around 30 lakh are suffering from disabilities, which is about six per cent, but the (2011) census figures show that it is only three per cent. Every MP/ MLA has to spend Rs. 10 lakh per year for activities related to disabilities, but hardly any of them is doing so,” Mr. Rajan added.
Other demands
Among the other demands made by the federation are giving preference to disabled persons in employment under contract, temporary jobs, honorary jobs as computer operators; creation of special projects for persons with disabilities under the rural employment guarantee scheme and preference to them under the ‘Kayaka Bandhu’ scheme; appointment of study committees to analyse the reasons behind such a small percentage of disabled persons passing class 10 exams.
