Jobs for weaker sections in private sector: Centre for voluntary disclosure

Union Minister for Social Justice Mukul Wasnik greets Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the inaugural session of State Ministers of Welfare/ Social Justice in New Delhi on Friday.

Jobs for weaker sections in private sector: Centre for voluntary disclosure

NEW DELHI: The Union government is working on a mechanism of ‘voluntary disclosure' by the corporate and private sector on enhancement of employment opportunities for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other weaker sections.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told a conference of State Social Justice and Empowerment Ministers here on Friday that the government had taken a number of initiatives to increase ‘affirmative action' with regard to employment of weaker sections in the private sector and working towards an annual voluntary disclosure mechanism.

Under the provisions of the Constitution, reservation in employment and education for SCs, STs and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) is applicable only to public sector undertakings and public and private educational institutions.

There have been demands for enforcement of job reservation in the private and corporate sector. The suggestion has not evoked a positive response from the private sector and hence the efforts by the government to encourage voluntary intake of weaker sections in recruitment.

Dr. Singh told the Ministers that some of the results are encouraging. Nearly 1.2 lakh youth have been trained under entrepreneurship development and other programmes but much more needs to be done.

The two-day conference would discuss the progress of action on Ministry's guidelines for simplifying procedure for issue of Disability Certificates, accessibility for Persons with Disability in in-built environment, communication and information, public transport, and implementation of the scheme for Implementation of Persons with Disabilities Act.

Dr. Singh told the conference that the Centre would fund education, healthcare and skill development of the disadvantaged sections for the entire 12th Five Year Plan period.

Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Mukul Wasnik maintained that the 115 per cent hike in the budget outlay for his Ministry would enable effective implementation of various schemes for educational empowerment of Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes students.

He told the conference that atrocities against SCs continued to be a matter of serious concern and a committee had been reviewing the status of implementation of the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 and SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989.

Manual scavenging

On manual scavenging, the Minister appealed to State Welfare Ministers to accord top priority to abolish the menace. A fresh survey would be conducted to identify those still engaged in manual scavenging and to rehabilitate them during the current financial year.