OPENING NEW DOORS

'Encouraging the role of private sector in enhancing employability of persons with disability': organized by Institute of Directors and The Strategic Alliance of organizations

7 million Persons with Disability (PWD) in India are in the employable age group of which less than 1% have employment. The growing sphere of influence and importance of the private sector has necessitated resourceful progress to deal with the employability of PWD's. As part of the same, the Strategic Alliance of Organizations (SAO), in association with The Institute of Directors, organized a workshop 'Opening new doors -Towards inclusive employment of persons with disability' to discuss issues regarding employability of PWD's.

The workshop had adequate representation from all the stakeholders, namely the public sector, the private sector and the NGO sector, government and persons with disability as well.

The expected outcomes of the project were discussed to be increasing sensitivity amongst corporates, requesting inputs on how to include PWD's in the workplace, a change in company HR policies with respect to employing PWD's and an increase in employment opportunities for PWD's.

The workshop was initiated by an introduction to Action Aid India and the stress that it lays on incorporating the marginalized of the society into the mainstream through a 'rights based' approach. Following the aforementioned presentation by Ms. Srimati, Mr. Viraf Mehta put forward the case of disability and corporate social responsibility (CSR). He promulgated the adoption of CSR by all corporate houses since adopting a diverse workforce is increasingly being seen a key factor in determining the efficiency of a company. He also briefly talked about litigation and the regulatory environment concerning corporate social responsibility, globally as well as on a national level.

Lt. Gen. Ahluwalia from IOD made a presentation on the role of apex bodies in promoting employability of PWD's in which he reiterated that increasingly CSR is playing a significant role in various large companies annual budgets.

The Mr. T.D Dhariyal (Dy. Chief Commissioner - Persons with Disability), made a presentation on the government's initiatives towards employment of PWD's, which incorporated litigation, statistics and examples of successful employment of PWD's.

Mr. P.K. Pincha thereafter moderated a deliberation on the barriers that prevent companies in the private sectors from hiring a person with disabilities. Once identified, the session proceeded to draw from examples of three corporate houses, namely Titan Industries Ltd, Balloons and NTPC, each of which had representatives elucidating how the employment of PWD's made business sense and explicated their experience of having hired a number of persons with disabilities. The forum also brought to light the experiences of the stakeholders perspective on employment by inviting a presentation from Mr. Sunil Vasvani who being a person with disability highlighted the setbacks he faced initially while seeking employment and how he overcame the hurdles. His experience proves that employing PWDs is not a charity for any company but it makes business sense for them as PWDs are equally competent than their non disabled counterparts.

The workshop successfully managed to put forth the case of disability and CSR in an unbiased and equitable approach by putting forward the perspective of the Private sector, the Public sector, the NGO's as well as the stakeholder's stance.

It also effectively endorsed an inclusive, socially responsible HR policy addressing issues such as recruitment, retention, work-life balance and training for persons with disabilities.

For details Kindly Contact:

Project coordinator
Strategic Alliance of Organisations
C-75, South Extension-II
New Delhi
Telefax; 011-51642348-50
Email: alliance@actionaidindia.org