Odisha to include people with disabilities in MGNREGS, job cards by May 31
BHUBANESWAR : People with disabilities (PwDs) seeking work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) will be identified in a campaign mode and provided job cards by the end of this month.
In a letter to all collectors, the department of Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (SSEPD) asked them to include all eligible and willing PwDs under the employment guarantee scheme by May 31. Besides, the collectors have also been asked to form village-level Divyang Shakti Groups that would comprise all MGNREGS workers with disabilities, by June 30.
Aiming at financial security for all vulnerable groups of people, the Panchayati Raj department had last month asked collectors to bring PwDs, primitive and nomadic tribal groups, denotified tribes, women in special circumstances, senior citizens above 65 years of age, HIV positive people and internally displaced persons, under MGNREGA.
As far as PwDs are concerned, persons (aged 18 and beyond) with benchmark disabilities, the severity of which is 40 per cent and above, will be considered as a special category of vulnerable persons for MGNREGA. Differently-abled persons as defined in the National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999 are also to be considered as disabled for inclusion under the scheme.
As per the census-2011, Odisha has a population of 12.44 lakh differently-abled people. While MGNREGA aims to provide employment to all rural adults, the participation of differently-abled persons, including women, in the state's MGNREGA programme remains relatively low. The percentage of participation of PwDs in MGNREGS in the state stands at 0.3 per cent.
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