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Unemployment Problems of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan) in Marathwada Region of India

Avinash C. Dhotre*, Dilip Khairnar, Kishor N. Chinchodkar

Department of Commerce and Management, Deogiri College, Aurangabad, Maharashtra State, India

Abstract: Employability is needed for bread and butter for everyone. There are limited numbers of jobs opportunities available for Persons with Disabilities in Marathwada region. The unemployment problems are affecting the life style of disabled people in this region. In this study, we mainly focused on the parameters such as socio-economic status, education and skills, physical limitation and available facilities, lack of confidence and self-motivation and it was considered for analysis and to develop model to overcome the problems. After analysis, we found that, disabled people have no basic facilities and educational access, less employability skills and poor family background. Lack of Financial support from government, inadequate number health centers, lack of vocational training at local level, unawareness of welfare schemes are the main reasons behind the overburdened socially and economically disabled people. Our study concludes that, a proposed model is complete solution for preventing the unemployment problems of persons with disabilities in Marathwada region, Maharashtra state.

Keywords: Persons with Disabilities (PwDs), Unemployment problems, Jobs, literacy, Education, Employability Skills, Training

Received July 17, 2023; Revised August 18, 2023; Accepted August 25, 2023

Citation: Avinash C. Dhotre, Dilip Khairnar, Kishor N. Chinchodkar, Unemployment Problems of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan) in Marathwada Region of India. American Journal of Rural Development, 11 (1). 9-14. January 2023. doi:10.12691/ajrd-11-1-2

1. Introduction

Disability is a complex and multidimensional issue for sustainable development of India which poses a number of challenges. In India, the unemployment rate among disabled people of age 15 years and above was 4.2% in 2018. In India, the highest disability had been reported from Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha and Sikkim whereas Maharashtra had the fourth rank in disabled population which was recorded 2.64% [1]. Maharashtra is one of the most prosperous state in India is currently facing the problem of unemployment. The most of the disabled people in Marathwada are belonging to poor family and have no access of job employment. The backlog of vacancies of disabled people is not filled year over year in Marathwada region hence the region is striving towards the employment of disabled people. In this region, disabled people are particularly vulnerable to many deficiencies in services such as rehabilitation, health care, financial support from government. Very few disabled people are aware about rehabilitation services despite their existence. Many times they have no access or less access to take training for skill development to get the employment opportunities [2].

According to Oxfam India, major challenges of unemployment are low literacy level, lack of access to skills and technology, lack of willingness to invest in PwD related technologies, inadequate job identification process, inadequate workplace accessibility, lack of effective integration process, ignorance, misinformation and prejudice etc. [3] even though the government had passed the RPwDs Act 2016 (Right of Persons with Disabilities). The act made mandatory quantum of assistance for persons with disabilities, the provision for reasonable accommodation and access may be included in the schemes. As per section 37 of the act 5% reservation should be provided to PwDs in all poverty alleviation and developmental schemes (with priority given to women disabilities) [4]. The recommended reservation policy is not yet implemented hence it stimulates the unemployment of persons with disabilities.

In the recent status of unemployment of disabled people crises reveled that; the growth of disabled population in Marathwada was increased in the last two decade. NHFDC (National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation, Maharashtra State) was started in the year 2001 but the center had not much benefited to poor and vulnerable persons with disabilities. Most NGOs have vocational/placement units, which can train and employ disabled people in various jobs, but many of them do not have the need of industry, good training faculty and well resources. Very few private companies had been initiated for providing training program and promoting employment for people with disability like ITC, TCS, Mphasis and EDS [5], but these organizations are not constantly working for disabled people. Even, NASSCOM had lunched centre for excellence for people with disabilities in 2017 but no any organization had given such technological access for disabled people. The government of Maharashtra started the separate ministry for PwDs, and it has challenge to resolve the sole job of looking after welfare of differently disabled persons and ensuring successful implementation of various government schemes for them [6]. The government of Maharashtra also started micro credit finance for handicapped, the financial support for self-employment, provides loan for education with low interest rate, subsidy on loan, providing training facilities by various organizations and encourage them to employable. However, it has not emphasized the concrete solution for the reduction of disabled poverty and unemployment measures for disabled people. The 4% reservation in Maharashtra state is given to persons with disabilities in government jobs but no reservation quota have yet been fixed for private organizations [7].

2. Methods

2.1. Study Designs

We have randomly selected 80 (10 from each district) persons with disabilities who have different disabilities. A survey was an independent survey and it entirely focused on disabled. From each house, a disability had been recorded and one filed surveyor visited to collect information about the unemployment problems as well as information on difficulties of disabled, socio-economic life, dignity and their exploitation in society. The underlying cause of each disable’s unemployment was sought by routine, reliable, representative with observation and evaluation. Evidences of unemployment were also collected from society and government departments.

The data on disabled persons was collected from households by survey method using interview schedule with respect to issues like educational status, employability skills, educational access and physical facilities, benefit from government schemes, training and transport facilities and reasons behind the unemployment.

2.2. Subjects

The data was collected from 80 identified disables (47 from rural and 33 from Urban) for unemployment problems in Marathwada region. Interviewers, who were known to the communities from previous rounds of field work, were train to collect information on the problems of unemployment and on the causes of unemployment. The most common respondents were for the 80 above the age of 20 years were the parents of unemployed disabled. The remaining informants were usually other household members. In the case of hearing and speech disabled, the assistance was taken from the head of family or any other person who can communicate during the interview. Out of the different types of disabilities Locomotor disability was the highest in both rural and urban areas followed by visual disability and hearing disability. The universe of the study was any people affected by any form of disability i.e. locomotor, hearing, visual, speech and others in the selected study areas.

2.3. Analysis

We had analyzed the data by applying frequency, correlation and regression. Analyses were focused on ages 20 year or older. We applied age and education specific proportion of unemployment problems. The education and employability skills were correlated with variables. The regression was used to know the reasons behind the unemployment problems of disabled people.

We used logistic regression to compare the following variables for each gender: age (20-25, 25-30, 30-35, 35-40, and 40-45 years); education (Illiterate, literate, literate but below primary, primary but below middle, Middle but below matric/secondary, matric/secondary but below graduate, graduate and above); geographical region (any other states or rest of India); type of disability (locomotor, hearing, visual, speech and language, mental retardation, mental illness and other); Religion (Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist/Jain, Christian); residence (rural or urban); and marital status (unmarried,married/remarried, widow/separated/divorced) and a measured of community wealth. Chi square test & proportional test was used for data analysis. Analysis was performed by using SPSS software.

3. Results

Figure 1. Socio Economic Status of persons with disabilities

We have studied the socio economic status of disabled people with respect to the unemployment cases. The most of the disabled people 59% from rural areas and having different difficulties to take education like basic infrastructure, educational access, health, transportation, and technology. They have physical problem to join training program in urban areas to develop their employability skills. This clearly shows that the poor situation of disabled people which drag them to be unemployable (Figure 1.)

Figure 2. Type of disability & their percentage

There are many disabilities but these are some major disease of disability. The employment is depending on the employability skills but it is difficult for disabled people to acquire such skills. We found that locomotor disability 38.80% was highest than other disabilities and maximum unemployed disables were in the category of locomotor. Visual disability 22.50% is followed by hearing disability 16.50% has difficulties of recent technology at workplace. Therefore an unemployment problem of disabled people is becoming serious issue (Figure 2.)

Figure 3. Educational status of persons with disabilities

Figure 4. Educational Access and Facilities

More than 32.50% disabled people completed matric/secondary but never persuade the graduation. This is because they have no family support and poor family background especially the disables from village areas. The disabled people 23.75% also completed graduation and above. This is because of support from family and encouragement from society. Due to lack of support, encouragement and motivation disabled may lose their education and career (Figure 3.)

We found that 51 persons from all categories of disability had no any educational access and facilities. This is the reason that they are unable to attend school/college. The locomotor disability 18 person were followed by visual disability 11 person and hearing disability 7 person were opinion that no any educational access and facilities in school/college or in the society. The situation is found pathetic hence it discourages to disable people for taking education or developing their skills (Figure 4.)

Figure 5. School/College Attended

Most of the 49 disabled people from all categories of disability had never attended school/college because of physical problems, educational access and available facilities. The locomotor disability 13 person were followed by visual disability 8 person and hearing disability 3 people never went to school/college. This is rightly said that the poor situation of disabled people stimulate to become illiterate and vulnerable (Figure 5).

We found that 40% persons with disabilities had no any employability skill. These lead to majority of unemployment in Maharashtra. Opportunity without skills may difficult to perform the assigned task therefore need of effective training facilities. The condition is found very depressing and the opportunity was not got due to lack of employability skills (Figure 6). The skill challenge becomes acute for India, due to skill versus job requirement mismatch which leads to economically inactive working age group people affecting the economy and increasing the unemployment [8].

Figure 6. Employability skills

Figure 7. Reasons of disables’ unemployment

Lack of basic facilities and training facilities are two main reasons of disables unemployment which constitutive 27.50% and 26.25%. These two reasons are continuously affecting the unemployment of disabled people and may cause serious issue. Other reasons of unemployment like physical limitations, lack family support, lack of self-motivation are also affecting on unemployment of disabled (Figure 7.)

Hypotheses Tested

H0 Association between educational status and skill of the respondents

H₁ No association between educational status and skill of the respondents

Chi-Square Test

Table 1. Association between educational status and skill of the respondents

Significant association was found out between educational status and skill of the respondents (p<0.05). As number of respondents is higher in skill having education is also higher while maximum respondents don’t have skill and their education is also low hence the alternative hypothesis is rejected and null hypothesis is accepted. Education without skill is nothing therefore there should special provisions for PwD students to enhance their skills.

H₀: The proportion of respondent’s opinion regarding educational access, facilities and attended school / college is equal/same.

H₁: The proportion of respondent’s opinion regarding educational access, facilities and attended school /college is unequal/different.

i.e., Test for difference = 0 (vs not = 0):

Table 2. Two Proportions Test

From the above table, we show that, p-value is greater than 5% level of significance. Hence, accept null hypothesis and conclude that, the proportion of respondent’s opinion regarding educational access, facilities and attended school / college is equal / same. There must be accessibility of education and availability of educational facilities to attend the school /college for PwD Students.

Preventive model for unemployment of disabled peoples

Figure 8. Preventive model for unemployment of disabled peoples

3.1. Preventive measures

Educational access and basic facilities, socioeconomic status, limited success of training programme, job quotas is infective, no awareness about schemes and benefits, infective access to employment related data, absence of finance have left the disabled people with no other solution to be unemployable. We have proposed model with 14 different types of support for the prevention of such unemployment cases. Some major prevention includes literacy and education, basic facilities, hospitality, easy availability of technical and financial support for doing business. Only two disability rehabilitation centers are in Marathwada region hence it is required to start in every district to access of essential basic services like health, education and livelihoods. The training program should be organized in rural areas for the development of employability skills such as English language, communication, computer etc.

Entrepreneurship development program for disabled people especially need to more organize for the potential entrepreneurs both in urban and rural areas for creating different perspective entrepreneurs with strong orientation. The government should restrict the reservation policy for disabled in private organization at national level besides this all public and private organization must implement the policy of reservation to fill backlog of vacancies for PwDs. The rules and regulations mentioned in RPwDs Act 2016 regarding their dignity and harassment will strictly follow by society and every organization. Education is the powerful weapon; therefore it is required to start separate school and college with trained teachers for disabled people. For the empowerment of disabled people the attainment of school/college education and participation in economic activity are extremely important but the loans are not sanctioned immediately and they have no paying capacity at the initial stage, hence government should ensure the institutional finance with subsidy and insurance for all disables or poor disables. In villages/urban vocational trades are famous, such vocational trades with different facilities can be gainful to start traditional occupations for the development of PwDs where they can grab the opportunity of self-employment. There is need to assess their functional capabilities and caliber to involve them in vocational skills to enhance their competency and confidence which will impact over economic empowerment.

4. Discussion

The most significant reasons for PwDs unemployment’s are physical limitation and family support, employability skills, lack of facilities to attend school/college, lack of self-motivation and confidence, dignity in the society and have no well-designed training program.

The studies describes that unemployment problems of PwD as a complex interplay of five main reasons, including literacy and education, skills, technology, inadequate job and workplace accessibility. The today’s organization is demanding well educated employees and having command over English language with good communication whereas the low literacy and education without skill cause a loss of persons with disabilities which subsequently lead to become jobless. This was emerged due to less access in education where they could not attend school/college and skill training program, besides that fear of exploitation at work, poor family background and support. As per NITI Aayog (National Institute for Transforming India), considering the importance of the vision, strategy and agenda document, the disability community feels that, if there are no focused measure to include disability into this exercise, the community which is one of the largest minority, shall get left behind and miss the development agenda [9].

Persons with disabilities (PwD) had faced many problems like unfair treatment, discrimination, bullying and harassment at work. Barriers are like attitudes of employers or colleague, anxiety or lack of confidence and issues relating to access and support. As human beings, in addition to employment, all divyangjan (PwDs) need a safe secure and accessible environment which is respectful of their dignity [10]. As per the present situations disabled people suggested to develop monitoring system for vulnerable disables and offering those timely help. Even though government has developed various polices, they have need to design and implement the proper polices for disabled people who are depended on employment. The development programs and policies are not disability inclusive will leave persons with disabilities [11]. When compared to the US rehabilitation act, the Indian PwD Act has only mention of the word assistive technology. It does not moderate the use of these technologies. The US act on the other hand has strong guidelines in support of assistive technologies. I think the Indian government should stress upon the accessibility within the law and web accessibility, Shilpi kedia managing director, Barrier Break technologies. Due to improper management of educational access, basic facilities are not available in rural areas, as disabled turned towards urban areas but their problems are not resolved. Educational intuitions may plan for the provision of national sign language interpenetration for online and remote classes. Indian sign language interpreter should be provided if there is a deaf student. Training should be provided to educators on how to deliver study curriculum online to disables as well as to the parents who are themselves persons with disabilities [12].

Different states have offered different financial support but not as much as beneficial to maximum disabled. A study by TISS (Tata Institute of Social Sciences) showed that institutions like NHFDC that provide financial support for entrepreneurial activities to PwDs could not utilize 50% of their financial allocation sanctioned by the government [13]. The national handicap finance and development center of India (NHFDC) sanctioned projects for all states and disbursement made amount of Rs. 142013(in lakhs) in the year 2022-2023 but it had reached to only 228589 beneficiaries and it was very low as compared with the current population of persons with disabilities [14].

Several countries control over unemployment of PwDs by taking various actions like France increased the reservation quota from 3% to 6% for public and private employers. Where the employment quota obligation not met, private sector employers may fulfill the quota by accepting trainees with disabilities, outsourcing work to shelter employment sector, including shelter workshops etc. Brazil serves as an employment broker and ongoing support agency for disabled people. Germany also had raised the quota for disabled people, 10% in case of public industry, and 5% in case of private industries. Many countries over the world have quota scheme for persons with disabilities [15]. In Spain Fundacion ONCE (National Organization de Ciegos Espanoles) is for to promote training and employment and accessibility. In Manchester, United Kingdom, Breakthrough is an innovative user controlled employment service that works with disabled people and employers, helping to find and sustain employment and to find training for work. In UK the Pathways to Work program is an initiative to provide support and assistance for employment and health. It consists of range of services to help disabled people. Due to health condition personal advisers offer help in finding jobs, work related training and assistance in managing disabilities. The said program in UK increased the profitability of being employed by 7.4% [16].

Our field based research may benefit to find out the solution behind the unemployment problems of disabled people. The limitation of present study was always considered while doing the research. This was a small scale study conducted at particular geographical area of Marathwada in Maharashtra state. These findings can useful for policy formulation or either to take particular decision in respect of PwDs. Therefore, before conducting research study at higher level this is important to confirm our findings. At the end, it can be concluded that the unemployment problems of persons with disabilities are due to the complex interplay of physical limitations and available access, education and employability skills, lack of training facilities and vocational training, lack of government awareness agencies or advisors, lack of self-motivation and family support, on the other hand Lack of government funds and its disbursement, insufficient rehabilitation center or health center, backlog of government jobs and no options of private jobs. Therefore, preventive measures for unemployment are to develop a monitoring system for vulnerable disabled and a transparent, it is necessary to conduct skill vocational programme to ensure self-confidence and capacity building in modern enterprise techniques, village level system for disbursement of loan to disabled people for economic empowerment. Employment needs from the perspectives of both Persons with disabilities (PwD) and educators/employers/health care providers/vocational trainers. Understanding the users’ needs, employers’ expectations, workplace demand and the environment will increase the chances of getting employed [17]. PwDs welfare and employment camps should be organized regularly by government, implementing agencies, NGOs and industries, schemes need for more flexibility for optimum utilization, free and accessible service for PwDs with minimum paper work, facilities for inclusion in education and technical institutes [18]. The NCPEDP (National Centre for Promotion of Employment of Disabled People) work towards the development of disabled people but it should have village level approach and strengthen NCPEDP to educate, offer support, counseling that lead to comprehensive development of disabled people.

References

[1]   | Persons with disabilities (Divyangjan) in India – A Statistical Profile: 2021.Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation Government of India. Available from .
[2]   | Mactaggart I, Kuper H, Murthy GV, Sagar J, Oye J, Polack S, et al. Assessing Health and Rehabilitation Needs of People with Disabilities In Cameroon and India. Disability Rehabil. 2016 Sep;38(18):1757-64.
[3]   | Moving Beyond Compliance – Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Business. Oxfam Briefing Paper, March 2019.
[4]   | The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act. 2016.
[5]   | Employment of disabled people in India – Base Line Report. February, 2009.
[6]   | Times of India, November 2022.
[7]   | www.maharashtra.gov.in.
[8]   | Sushmita B, Unemployment in India. Proceedings of National Conference on Recent Innovations in Science, Engineering and Technology.2016;978-93-85465-94-9.
[9]   | 100+points on NITI Aayog‘s Three Years Action Agenda to Make It Inclusive For Persons with Disability.
[10]   | Dev Nandan K, and Tanu T. A Phenomenological Study of Psycho-Social and Vocational Rehabilitation of Employed Persons with Disabilities Divyangjan At Work Place. PARIPEX. Indian Journal of Research. ISSN 2250-1991, April 2018.
[11]   | Mactaggart I, Kuper H, Murthy GV, Sagar J, Oye J, Polack S, Assessing health and rehabilitation needs of people with disabilities in cameroon and India. Disability Rehabil. 2016 Sep;38(18):1757-64.
[12]   | National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), September 28, 2020.
[13]   | Ipsita and Sapra, Not working! Why Livilihood programs for persons with disabilities do not work in India, Draft, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, 2012.
[14]   | The National Handicap Finance and Development Centre of India (NHFDC), state wise total disbursement, February 2023..
[15]   | Promoting employment opportunities for people with disabilities - Quota Scheme, Volume -1, Gender equality and diversity and ILOAIDS Branch, 2019.
[16]   | World health organization, world report on disability, 2011.
[17]   | Gita JO, Amit K, sarju M et.al. Factors influencing employability of Persons with disabilities in India: a systematic review protocol. International Journal of Research and review. 2023; 10(4): 231-236.
[18]   | NITI Aayog research division government of India, a report on research study on identifying and profiling skill development activities for generating potential employment opportunities for persons with disability, health centre for rural development, January 2016.