All,
Really a good step towards accessibility.
Accessible India: Disabled-friendly initiatives to earn
firms brownie points from Modi government
By NIDHI SHARMA, ET Bureau | 21 Oct, 2015, 07.00AM IST
NEW DELHI: India Inc will soon have an incentive to design disabled-friendly
buildings and human resource policies. A new index, likely to be unveiled by
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 3 as part of 'Accessible India'
campaign, will rate companies across public and private sectors for disabled
-friendly initiatives.
December 3 is celebrated as the International Day of Persons with
Disabilities.
The Modi government will kick off the exercise with a rating of 10 private
companies from different sectors including textiles and manufacturing, said
an official, who did not wish to be named.
The campaign will involve a number of programmes aimed at making India more
disabled friendly, he said.
The proposed index will give credits to companies for disabled-friendly
office buildings, the number of disabled persons on their rolls,investment
in training and career development of the disabled staff and the quality of
facilities provided to them.
An audit of HR policies of companies will form a major part of the index, a
framework for which has been worked out by the department of disability
affairs under the social justice and empowerment ministry.
Accessible India: Disabled-friendly initiatives to earn firms brownie points
from Modi government
The index will also assess companies on sensitisation of peers towards
persons with disabilities, providing products such as computers and mouse
for use, provision of facilities like toilets and percentage distribution in
employment of physically and mentally challenged persons.
"There will be extra credits for employment given to persons with extreme
disability. There will be a differentiation not just to see the total
percentage of persons with disability employed but also the type of
disability people suffer from," said a senior official.
Ethical Push
The official said the Modi-led NDA government is hoping to give the
corporate sector an ethical push with this index "If you score high you can
be seen as a socially responsible player in the corporate world. This could
work as an incentive for the private sector toinvest in the Accessible India
campaign and help the government," said the official.
The government is hoping to rope in the private sector to adopt and retrofit
buildings to make them accessible to disabled persons. The department of
disability affairs is proposing tax incentives for private companies if
theyinvest in the campaign. Though the proposal is at a nascent stage, the
department is working towards finalising it before the launch of the index,
an official said.
According to the official, the government is trying to avoid the mistakes
committed during the execution of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the cleanliness
mission launched by Modi on October 2 last year. "The private sector has to
be roped in for the success of a programme. Under Swachh Bharat the private
sector hardly came forward to build toilets," he said.
"The urban development minister had openly stated that holding a seminar
here and there would not help Swachh Bharat. So we have worked out
Accessibility Index," the official said, pointing out that the plan is to
acknowledge effective companies through higher ratings rather than just
encouraging them to adopt more disabled-friendly practices.
ET View: Enact law on rights for differently abled
The differently abled must not be discriminated against. Rating PSUs on the
accessibility index is a good idea. However, the government must also
swiftly enact the law which guarantees the rights and entitlements of
persons with disabilities, given that India ratified a UN convention in
2007. The proposed law entitles persons with at least 40 per cent disability
to benefits such as reservations in education, employment and preference in
government schemes. As government services have been outsourced to private
agencies, these must be also be covered under the law. Guaranteed rights
will only strengthen the government's campaign.
Source :
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/accessible-india-dis
abled-friendly-initiatives-to-earn-firms-brownie-points-from-modi-government
/articleshow/49474198.cms
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