Question : Employment to Differently Abled

(a) whether the Government gives priority in employment and promotion to the differently-abled persons;
(b) if so, whether the Government has observed the fact that the partly blind employees are unable to compete with others in writing departmental promotion test;
(c) if so, whether the Government is considering to give promotion to such employees on the basis of the service in merits in departments and if so, the details thereof; and
(d) the time by which a final decision in this regard is likely to be taken?

Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office. (DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

(a): Section 34 of the “ The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016” mandates every appropriate Government to appoint in every Government establishment, not less than four per cent of the total number of vacancies in the cadre strength in each group of posts meant to be filled with persons with benchmark disabilities of which, one per cent each shall be reserved for persons with benchmark disabilities under clauses (a), (b) and (c) and one per cent for persons with benchmark disabilities under clauses (d) and (e), namely:-

(a) blindness and low vision;
(b) deaf and hard of hearing;
(c) locomotor disability including cerebral palsy, leprosy cured, dwarfism, acid attack victims and muscular dystrophy;
(d) autism, intellectual disability, specific learning disability and mental illness;
(e) multiple disabilities from amongst persons under clauses (a) to (d) including deaf-blindness in the posts identified for each disabilities.

Section 34 of the Act also provides that the reservation in promotion shall be in accordance with such instructions as are issued by the appropriate Government from time to time.

(b)to(d): Promotions to the higher grades are made as per provisions of the relevant Recruitment Rules. In some of the Recruitment Rules, provisions exist for promotion either on the basis of seniority in service or through Limited Departmental Competitive Examinations. The candidates, who do not qualify the Limited Departmental Competitive Examination are promoted on the basis of their inter-se-seniority in the feeder grade.

However, in cases where the departmental promotion test is the only mode of promotion, proposal to give promotion on the basis of the seniority or merit in service alone is not under consideration.
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