Create job opportunities for physically challenged

Discussants at a roundtable, “Creating Employment Opportunities and Disability Friendly Safe Working Environment: Current Situation and Way Forward”, organised by the Centre for Disability in Development with support from Manusher Jonno Foundation in the capital's The Daily Star Centre yesterday. Photo: Star

Focus must be put on employment opportunities for physically challenged people who acquired higher education, as their numbers are increasing despite the past challenges faced in providing educational opportunities for them, speakers told a roundtable yesterday.
Physically challenged people do not yet have access to friendly work environments and it is the social responsibility of all concerned to create a better environment for them, they said.
The roundtable, “Creating Employment Opportunities and Disability Friendly Safe Working Environment: Current Situation and Way Forward”, was organised by Centre for Disability in Development (CDD) with support from Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF) in the capital's The Daily Star Centre.
A 2002 government study found that only four percent of physically challenged people had educational opportunities and presumably this figure at present stands at 20 percent, said CDD Executive Director AHM Noman Khan.
There is no quota for physically challenged people in first class and second class government jobs, said Salma Mahbub, general secretary of Bangladeshi Systems Change Advocacy Network.
Physically challenged people only get one percent of the 55 percent quota reserved in government jobs for indigenous people, freedom fighters etc but only after quotas for all others are met, she said.
Every ministry should keep in mind the contexts concerning physically challenged people while formulating policies, said MJF Executive Director Shaheen Anam, adding, “We need to change our mindset towards physically challenged people.”
The Daily Star Managing Editor Dr Salehuddin Ahmed; and Peter Fremlin, consultant disability, ILO Bangladesh, also spoke at the roundtable.