National Centre for the Promotion of Employment for Disabled Persons (NCPEDP)

Key Facts

Challenges faced by the disabled during the pandemic.

Challenges:

• The pandemic has various implications for people with disabilities.
• Lack of employment opportunities:
• According to a report by the National Centre for the Promotion of Employment for Disabled Persons (NCPEDP), over 73% of people with disabilities surveyed faced serious difficulties in employment opportunities due to the lockdown.
• Medical needs:
• People with disabilities have pre-existing medical conditions like MRSA [an infection] or have compromised spinal cords, which make them more susceptible to virus infection.
• The inaccessibility to healthcare because of the lockdown imposes a great challenge on the differently-abled owing to their medical conditions.
• There is a lack of accessibility in the quarantine centers for the differently-abled people.
• Negligence:
• The challenges faced by the differently-abled people point to a larger problem of invisibilisation of the struggles of persons with disabilities. People with disabilities have no representation in Parliament, hence, nobody cares to ensure the policies made for the differently-abled are intersectional in nature.
• Policies being framed seem to be oblivious to the needs of the specially-abled individuals.
• The increasing insistence on online education seems to be ignorant of the special needs of children with visual disorders or hearing disorders. There seems to be a lack of inclusiveness of people with disabilities in online education.
• Social distancing is not possible for those with disabilities. The concept of social distancing is redundant for differently-abled people who need assistance for their daily activities.
• Class divide:
• A large class divide has become increasingly visible in the lockdown.
• Individuals with a disability and their families are at a greater risk of poor health and quality of life outcomes because either their social status is affected by their disabilities or their disabilities are made worse by the inaccessibility that comes with social status.
• Lower-income levels have been consistently correlated with poor health and an inferior quality of life.