CII – NITTTR’s Ability’13 provides job opportunities to 32 disabled (differently abled)

Chandigarh, February 22, 2013: Thirty-two disabled candidates were shortlisted on the spot by various companies which participated in the ABILITY 2013:“Opening New Doors Towards Inclusive Employment of Persons with Disability” , a job fair organised jointly by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) NR and National Institute for Technical Teachers’ Training and Research (NITTR) at NITTR, Sector 26, Chandigarh on Friday.

It was specifically organised to open new doors of employment  forthe disabled (differently abled) candidiates and help them earn a livelihood.

Around 50 differently abled candidates participated in the drive, out of which 65 % were orthopaedically handicapped including polio inflicted,10 % were hearing impaired and 25 % were visually challenged.

The participating candidates appreciated the industry’s response and felt encouraged, as they got an opportunity to meet and interact with the corporates as part of this recruitment drive.

The positions for which they were interviewed included – Mechanical Engineer,Customer Care Executive, Fitters, Electricians, Refrigerator Mechanics, Packers, Assembly Operators, Front / Back end desk executives, Administratve jobs, Data Entry operators,  Office Assistants, Supervisiors – Production, Telephone operators etc.

The 9 CII member companies which participated in this special placement drive included - Competent Synergies Pvt Ltd, IBM Global Process Services Pvt Ltd, M/s. Kartar Valves Pvt Ltd, ACE Hospital, Gilard Electronic Pvt. Ltd, Advance Technologies, Vardhman Textiles Limited, Godrej Consumer Products Limited, Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd (Dominos Pizza).

“We must adopt preventive measures on pregnant women to help children fight the disabilities in the mother’s womb itself” pointed Vini Mahajan, Principal Secretary, (Health and Family Welfare), Punjab.

“There is also a need to enhance mechanisms and systems to treat diseases like polio in early years of kids, especially in rural areas. We are fully committed to fight polio and eradicate it completely. It is also imperative to give due respect to the differently abled persons and initiatives like ABILTY  are really appreciable and the need of the hour”, she added.

DL Sharma, Vice Chairman, CII Punjab State Councilshared that “initiatives like ABILITY 2012, in which motivation comes right from the heart can only benefit the disabled”. He stressed that “it is not only the question of providing livelihood to the differently abled but also about treating them as equals. He further added that CII motivates industry as part of its social commitment to recruit recruiting Persons with disabilities (PWDs) and also provides the right channel. Ability 2013 acts as a platform to bridge the gap between the disabled and the corporate”.

“While CII mobilises its member companies to recruit qualified PWDs, the NITTTR, Chandigarh prepares the data base and makes available its infrastructure for holding discussions and interviews.”, he added.

Pikender Pal Singh, Regional Director, CII NRshared that “It has always been CII’s endeavour to work towards and achieve inclusive growth of the country including all sections of the society. CII spreads awareness among disabled candidates about the job market and regularly sensitises the industry to treat the Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) with equality and dignity and provide them with employment opportunities and improve their access to services and facilities”. “CII is committed to hold many such placement drives in other parts of the region as well”, he added.

Dr M P Poonia, Director, NITTTR emphasised the need for more such initiatives and appreciated that more and more corporate are realising the true potential of the differently abled persons and coming forward to recruit them.

Prof J S Saini, Professor and Head of Rural Development Department & Centre for Physically Challenged Persons, NITTTR shared that “Ability job fairs have been able to provide jobs to 155 for differently abled persons till now, which started in 2010.Ability 2013 is the 7^th edition. In India, there are about 265 lakhs PWDs, out of which 20 % do not reach adult hood and same % do not reach 4^th decade of their lives. The sad irony is that a vast majority, i.e 75 % of PWDs live in rural India where as 95 % of NGOs restrict their work in urban areas. I appeal to NGOs to operate from rural areas as well”.