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While the number of PWDs employed in Nifti-50 companies during 2021-22. the year affected by Covid was 10.6% higher than the previous year FY21, the proportion of people with different abilities employed in these firms is still less than half a percent of their total permanent workforce. Also, PWD employment remains largely concentrated among a few companies in select sectors such as banking, retail, IT and public sector units (PSUs).
SBI, Reliance Industries, Infosis, TCS and Wipro are the top five recruiters of differently abled people, along with 75% of the 12,295 PWDs employed by Nifti-50 companies.
“Today we certainly see the technology, retail and hospitality sectors employing people with disabilities, and obviously the government, or the public sector, is employing them,” said Shilpi Kapoor, CEO of digital accessibility testing consultancy BarrierBreak Solutions. ET during an interaction on the Morning Brief podcast. “While companies want to hire more PWDs, they struggle to build a systemic and inclusive culture that will help them do so.” And it remains a charitable approach to employing a small number of people,” she said.
According to corporate lawyer Amar Jain, who deals with advocacy and awareness of the rights of persons with disabilities, there are clear challenges that persons with disabilities face in their employment.
Although there are handicap openings on the entry and middle levels, there are no openings on the upper level. “You don’t see a CFO with a disability. You don’t see a CFO with a disability being appointed very often,” said Jain, who is visually impaired.
“Even when career opportunities are provided, the internal accessibility of the workplace is still the biggest challenge for us – precisely from the accessibility of the tools we use every day or the physical infrastructure we use.
Assistive technologies for people with disabilities are expensive and companies are reluctant to invest in them,” he said.
The Disability Rights Act of 2016 requires establishments, whether government or private, to adopt an equal opportunities policy that sets out certain things, including the working conditions provided. “However, most Indian companies have not done so till date even after six years since the Act was passed,” Jain said.
BarrierBreak’s Kapoor said companies face challenges in how to upskill PWDs, how to give them their promotions, how to give them new positions and even decide whether to employ such people. terminate if he or she is not working.
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