The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, which comes under the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, does not have any information on the employment among the disabled persons in the country, according to a reply to a query filed by The Indian Express under the Right to Information (RTI) Act in September last year.

“Information related to the percentage of employment of disabled persons is not available,” the RTI reply says.

According to section 33 of Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995, at least three per cent of vacancies in a government establishment should be filled with persons with disabilities, of which one per cent shall be reserved for persons suffering from blindness or low vision, hearing impairment and locomotor disability. Various estimates suggest that in reality, the figure is less than two per cent.

The RTI reply, citing figures from 2011 Census, says there are 2.68 crore persons with disabilities in the country.

It also talks about new schemes which mainly deal with research on disability related technology, products and budgetary support to a national trust that has been launched for the benefit of persons with disabilities. However, the reply does not mention any specific schemes, their funding and allocations and how different states fare in implementing these.

While the government could not pass the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Bill, it had promised to improvise the present PWD Act of 1995 by creating a national database for persons with disabilities and issue unique disability identity cards to them through a web-based programme. Last month, the Centre announced its Accessible India or Sugamya Bharat campaign for the welfare of persons with disabilities.

However, those working for the disabled say it’s shocking that the government does not even have data of the employment of such people. “It is shocking that the government who recently announced that the disabled people should be addressed as ‘divyang’ and launched schemes for them but does not even have data on their employment,” says Javed Abidi of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People. “I want to give the ministry a backhanded compliment that at least they accept they do not have the figures.

While the Planning Commission has stated that the disabled constitute six per cent of India’s total population, the government has no data on their employment. Merely launching schemes does not mean anything,” he says. Abidi says that the proposed new Bill, if passed, would have expanded the definition of disability by including 19 conditions compared to just seven in the 1995 Act. The Bill also prohibits any kind of discrimination against the disabled and covers the private sector as far as their employment is concerned. The Bill also proposes to raise the quota for the disabled from three to five per cent, the additional two per cent being reserved for persons with psychosocial and developmental disabilities.

“For the first time, people in these two categories will be looked upon as employable. If the 1995 law gave us a foundation, this new law could have helped us into the next phase of the disability struggle,” says Abidi. Ramchandra Rangolle, an activist who works for the disabled, says the three per cent quota for them is only on paper and that most of the government departments do not adhere to it.

“With governments themselves not following the 1995 Act, they are unlikely to give out the figures,” he says. Haridas Shinde of Sanyukta Apang Hakk Surkarsha Samiti points out that under the 1995 Act, there is also a provision to give stipend to a disabled person if he or she is not given employment, which is not followed. “Even the High Court had issued orders on the same. They are not able to provide figures as they would have to give the stipend amount, which is mandatory,”