Skill development for differently abled person PWD

21 Mar 2015 (AIR News Analysis)

Participants: Mukesh Jain, Joint Secy, Ministry of social justice & empowerment and Interviewer – Surabi agarwal, special correspondent, Business Standard.

Two new schemes launched for the disabled people?

Numbers from the census 2011 – 2.68 crore are disabled – 9.9million people are literate, in working age, unemployed/underemployed;

National Action Plan launched to address these issues; Problems need to be addressed: (1) Low coverage (hardly 1 lakh per year) (2) low rural accessibility (3) low employability (4) uncertainty of the quality (5) no homogeneity; so to create cohesive, coherent, qualitative system; CSR money should be properly channelized for optimum usage;

Steps to be taken to meet the said target?

Sector skill council for PWD (currently 31 council – vertical councils) – now to create horizontal councils; (1) to create synergistic cluster/system; (2) proper monitoring from the ministry;

Deficiencies in the present system?

To open more centre in rural areas; Note: Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC) – with the aide of Digital India – Online training platform;

Connecting industries with the differently abled people?

Industries realize the potential of the PWD; Some Estimate says the productivity of employing PWD increased by 0.5%;

As 13 sectors identified where PWD can get better avenues? Is it so?

No pre-conceived notions.

How about reservation in Private sector?

PWD (1995) Act mandates 3% reservation for the PWD; Private sector yet to be considered;

Occupational Standards?

Job requirement – occupational standards – training required;

Who will develop the portal?

NHFDC (under MOSJE) – National Handicapped Finance Development Corporation- Portal similar to Naukari, Shaadi, Timesjobs…

Fund earmarked for the project?

Rs.100 crore allotted under the national Action plan. Also we have Scheme for implementation of  PWD Act (SIPDA)