Pvt sector to open doors for disabled youths

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 22

In a major initiative which will go a long way in providing jobs to persons with disabilities in the private sector, the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment has roped in corporate houses to employ these youths but not before imparting them the training which makes them suited for the job.

The initiative has got thumbs up from industry bigwigs with more than a dozen companies, including Radisson and Oberoi’s and some pharmaceutical companies, agreeing to open their doors to the persons.

Interestingly, the backlog of vacancies reserved for persons with disabilities (3 per cent) in the government sector has come down from over 3,000 to a mere 264 in Himachal. “We do not wish that there should be even a single unfilled job, but now our endeavour is to open the doors of private sector for persons with disabilities by linking their jobs to Corporate Social Responsibility,” said Anuradha Thakur, Secretary, Social Justice and Empowerment.

It is on July 26 that a workshop on “Skilling and Employing the Disabled in Private Sector in Himachal” will be held here in the capital. The workshop will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh with participation from about 25 corporate houses and NGOs working in the field. As per the 2011 Census, there are 1,55,316 persons with disability in Himachal, including 86,321 men and 68,995 women.

It is at the initiative taken by the department and Deputy Commissioner Rohan Thakur that short duration training courses have specially been prepared by institutes like the Hotel Management Institute, Kufri, to impart training to these students. The basic qualification will be matriculation and they will be trained in housekeeping and taught crafts like bed-making and glass cleaning so that they can get jobs in the hospitality sector.

“In fact, the first batch of 21 hearing impaired students from the Visually and Hearing Impaired Institute at Dhalli will soon begin their training at the Kufri institute,” said Thakur.