Amid bias concern, Centre to provide high-quality assistive devices to employees with disabilities

NEW DELHI, Oct 8: Amid concern over bias against employees with disabilities, the Centre has decided to provide them with high-quality assistive devices to ensure they are engaged in a productive manner. The move follows observations that some departments hesitate to assign significant responsibilities to persons with disabilities (PwDs) due to apprehensions about reduced productivity. In a new directive, the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment said that “PwD employees, if given proper assistive devices, can be productive and valuable”. It added that to do justice to the expenditure made on their remuneration, such employees “need to be engaged in a productive manner”. The directive urged all Central