Disabilities In The Workplace – Policies, Laws And More

Disabled people in Pakistan face a plethora of obstacles due to a lack of authentic resource data and thus, hands-on support facilities. At least 7 million people with disabilities are forced to stay at home due to lack of wheelchair access (thus interfering with employment prospects). Other issues include insufficient resources/health care facilities, lack of evidence on disability statistics and worker shortages. Even officials confirm this statistical inconsistency and in 2011, the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund completed a survey of in seven districts of Pakistan, with a total of 78939 households; they discovered that the disability prevalence rate was roughly 12% of which 2 percent had severe disabilities. In ratio comparison, this is much higher than what is generally projected. So what companies are at the forefront of making important changes to accommodate the disabled members of Pakistan’s society – and how are they doing it? Let’s take a look.

The Current Laws

The Disabled Persons (Employment and Rehabilitation) Ordinance was enacted in 1981 as a presidential ordinance. It’s aim was to secure opportunities for finding employment in government, as well as commercial and industrial establishments for disabled members of Pakistan’s society. Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have adopted the 1981 Ordinance. This law is applicable to any establishment of any industry with at least 100 employees. Under this law, a disabled person can’t be hired on lower wages and benefits. This law additionally requires an establishment which does not employ a disabled person, to pay for the Disabled Persons Rehabilitation Fund each month the sum of money it would have paid as salary or wages to a disabled person had he had been employed – an attempt to ensure that disabled members of society are being hired. However, there is no clear evidence to prove the efficiency of this. We don’t know whether this is really happening for disabled members of Pakistan’s different communities, particularly in rural areas. So, who are the game changers who are keeping numbers on evidential change?

MAITS – Global Disability Training

MAITS (Multi-Agency International Support) is doing some incredible work to ensure professional training is on the rise in order to help people from all parts of Pakistan. In more remote areas of Pakistan, state laws that recognise particular disabilities do not come into full operation as often societal perceptions and rules dominate policy. As a result, many families with disabled children feel extremely isolated and unsupported due to the added stigma that is present towards disability and disabled people. Pakistan has Lady Health Workers who work in assisting these families, but they aren’t professionally trained, and are pastorally advised without strict guidelines or advice for trajectories of support. MAITS works to provide trained Lady Health Workers, who coordinate with the nearest charity and specialist services in order to provide disabled children with the most support they can give. If you check out their page on Global Giving, you can even be part of this change and donate to reach some of the most marginalised disabled communities in Pakistan.

Global Disability Summit and NOWPDP

In 2011, Pakistan ratified and publicly endorsed the UN’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Since then, in 2018, a global summit meeting was held in regard to chartering support for disability inclusion measures in Pakistan. In these event emerged clear and mutually agreed aims and courses of action for enabling disability inclusion, tackling stigma and discrimination, inclusion in educational environments, routes to economic empowerment, and harnessing technology and innovation. Similarly, NOWPD has created a plethora of courses and projects that cover different areas of obstacles that disabled people will face in society, through the means of providing support and skills sessions that will advise them on employment, educational opportunities and more. Importantly, they also champion and encourage large companies to become ‘disability confident’, and hire people with disabilities as they can have assets and skills that will be particularly valuable to their workforce. Now, it even places disabled people from Pakistan in full-time jobs, giving them increased economic independence, self-confidence and dignity and most importantly, a slow but sure social acceptance of disability. 

Companies That Actively Hire And Champion Disability Inclusion

Shell is perhaps the most prevalent and outward endorsing company in ensuring that they hire people of all abilities, putting great emphasis on the idea that they accommodate their disabled workers in order to maximise their excellent potentials, creating a space in which, ‘people with disabilities can thrive’. They have a specially catered Diversity and Inclusion team in all locational configurations, with active pride in taking onboard disabled employees.

Yari.Pk, Jobability, Indeed Pk and the Disability Job Centre do a fantastic job of providing clear-cut job opportunities for disabled people in Pakistan. They provide compartmentalised and skill specific opportunities, ensuring that they are being as inclusive as they can in these prospects. Some companies that are actively open about welcoming disabled workers as of now include: Deutsche Bank, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, the official Foreign and Commonwealth Office, DevTech Systems, United Nations Development Programme and more. This is more encouraging in the fact that these jobs are not centralised – many allow remote working opportunities, and many are in a variety of cities/areas. However, there is still a long way to go. For disabled folk living in rural or particularly isolated areas, the first step is educated support and hands-on involvement with job prospects – advice and access is the most fundamental thing here. Often, access to the internet in the first place is limited to a large number of disabled people or their families. That’s why the work of companies like MAITS is still equally important. People with disability will be assets to all companies – and work must be pioneered and pushed further to allow these possibilities to widen.