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Employment > Frequently asked questions

If you want to ask a question, please click here to access the F.A.Q. form

Question: What reservations exist for jobs in the government sector?

Answer: The P.W.D. Act clearly states that every appropriate Government shall appoint in every establishment such percentage of vacancies not less than 3 per cent for persons or class of persons with disability of which 1 per cent each shall be reserved for persons suffering from:

• Blindness or low vision;
• Hearing impairment;
• Locomotor disability or cerebral palsy, in the posts identified for each disability.

The Government may, having regard to the type of work carried on in any department or establishment, by notification, exempt any establishment from the provisions of this section.

Question: What happens if a reserved category of job finds no suitable candidate? Does the post lapse?

Answer: Where in any recruitment year any vacancy cannot be filled up due to non-availability of a suitable person with disability or, for any other sufficient reason, such vacancy shall be carried forward in the succeeding recruitment year. If in the succeeding recruitment year also a suitable person with disability is not available, it may first be filled by interchange among the three categories and only when there is no person with disability available for the post in that year, the employer shall fill up the vacancy by appointment of a person, other than a person with disability: provided that if the nature of vacancies in an establishment is such that a given category of person cannot be employed, the vacancies may be interchanged among the three categories with the prior approval of the appropriate government.

Question: I have been working in the government sector for the last five years. I am now due for a promotion, but I am being denied my promotion because of my disability. What does the law state on this issue?

Answer: The law clearly states that: No promotion shall be denied to a person merely on the ground of his disability provided that the appropriate government may, having regard to the type of work carried on in any establishment, by notification and subject to such conditions, if any, as may be specified in such notification, exempt any establishment from the provisions of this section.

Question: I acquired a disability while I was still serving. Now my company is considering demoting me. Can you help?

Answer: No establishment can dispense with, or reduce in rank, an employee who acquires a disability during his service:

• Provided that, if an employee, after acquiring disability is not suitable for the post he was holding, could be shifted to some other post with the same pay scale and service benefits;
• Provided further that if it is not possible to adjust the employee against any post, he may be kept on a supernumerary post until a suitable post is available or he attains the age of superannuation, whichever is earlier.

Question: What is the definition of disability?

Answer: 'Disability', as defined in the Persons with Disability Act is:

• "Person with disability" means a person suffering from not less than 40 percent of any disability as certified by a medical authority;
• Blindness; low vision; leprosy-cured; hearing impairment; locomotor disability; mental retardation; mental illness;
• "Blindness" refers to a condition where a person suffers from any of the following conditions: Total absence of sight; or Visual acuity not exceeding 6/60 or 20/200 in the better eye with correcting lenses; or limitation of the field of vision subtending an angle of 20 degree or worse;
• "Person with low vision" means a person with impairment of visual functioning even after treatment of standard refractive correction but who uses or is potentially capable of using vision for the planning or execution of a task with appropriate assistive device;
• "Cerebral palsy" means a group of non-progressive conditions of a person characterised by abnormal motor control posture resulting from brain insult or injuries occurring in the pre-natal, peri-natal or infant period of development;
• "Hearing impairment" means loss of 60 decibels or more in the better ear in the conversational range of frequencies;
• "Leprosy cured person" means any person who has been cured of leprosy but is suffering from:
  • Loss of sensation in hands or feet as well as loss of sensation and paresis in the eye and eye-lid but with no manifest deformity;
  • Manifest deformity and paresis but having sufficient mobility in their hands and feet to enable them to engage in normal economic activity;
  • Extreme physical deformity as well as advanced age which prevents him from undertaking any gainful occupation, and the expression "Leprosy Cured" shall be construed accordingly;
• "Locomotor disability" means disability of the bones, joints or muscles leading to substantial restriction of the movement of the limbs or any form of cerebral palsy;
• "Mental illness" means any mental disorder other than mental retardation;
• "Mental retardation" means a condition of arrested or incomplete development of mind of a person who is specially characterised by subnormality of intelligence.

If you want to ask a question, please click here to access the F.A.Q. form

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