CS told to ensure 5pc job quota for disabled in govt, private sectors

Sindh caretaker chief minister Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar has directed the chief secretary to ensure the implementation of the job quota for disabled persons in the government and private sector so that they can earn their livelihood on their own.

Baqar issued the directives during a meeting of the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPD) he chaired at the CM House on Wednesday. DEPD Secretary Taha Farooqi said his department is running four Centres for Autism Rehabilitation & Training, Sindh, in Karachi and Hyderabad, and 66 Special Education & Rehabilitation Centres in all six divisions of the province, where 4,190 children are enrolled.

Out of the 4,190 enrolled children, 2,923 are male and 1,242 are female, while the number of the employed teaching and non-teaching staff comes to 794.

In response to a query, Baqar was told that a Rs2,000 stipend is deposited in the account of the mothers of the enrolled special children every month. All the children are provided the pick-and-drop facility between home and school. All children are also provided with lunch at school.

Farooqi said that besides education and rehabilitation services, the children are provided with vocational training in different trades, adding that 208 children have so far been trained in various trades.

Baqar said the government has already reserved a five per cent job quota for special persons, so that quota must be implemented in true letter and spirit. He directed CS Dr Fakhre Alam to issue the necessary directives to all the government departments, and ensure the implementation of the job quota in the private sector through the labour department.

Alam said the DEPD issues the disability assessment certificates against which the job quota is being implemented. It was pointed out that the DEPD has issued 34,488 certificates since 2021.

The CS said that all the government departments are implementing the five per cent quota in employment for persons with disabilities. “By now 1,134 persons with disabilities have been provided jobs in all the districts.”

The meeting was told that Montessori and primary schools denying admissions to slow learners or mildly autistic children is a major problem, resulting in an artificial burden on the DEPD’s rehabilitation centres.

Baqar said that inclusive education can discourage wrong labelling of children as special or autistic at the age of three or four years without giving them a chance for school admission. He directed the CS to discuss the matter with the school education department and resolve the issue.

The meeting was told that the DEPD has the Special Education Teachers Training Academy, Sindh, in Kotri that was established in 2018, and the Sindh government leads the other provinces by establishing such an academy.

The DEPD secretary said that since its inception, the academy has completed 10 training programmes, while two are in progress in the fields of visually impaired, hearing impaired, occupational therapy, speech therapy and autism.