The UPA government’s Rs 1,800-crore scheme for providing employment to disabled persons in the private sector has almost drawn a blank. In response to an RTI application filed by the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP), the government said the scheme has created only 126 jobs according to ESIC data. The scheme targets creating 1 lakh jobs for disabled individuals a year during the Eleventh Plan.

“Only 126 beneficiaries have been registered by the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) and only 22 by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO),” state the minutes of the 3rd meeting of the government-constituted High Level Monitoring Committee (HLMC) held in May.

Though these figures should be mutually consistent as an employer should be claiming benefits for the same employee from both entities, it appears there are discrepancies in their calculating mechanism. While the ESIC’s beneficiaries are immediately reflected in the records, the EPFO database is only updated annually. In fact to avoid this, the HLMC had, in its first meeting asked both parties to submit quarterly reports.

Javed Abidi, honorary director, NCPEDP, feels that the scheme is inherently flawed. “How can you hope to cater to the needs of the 70 million disabled in India by offering companies a maximum of Rs 3,000 in exchange for a mountain of red tape?” said Abidi.

MK Acharya, secretary, Ministry of Social Justice, countered, “If a company does not want to avail the incentive that is not the fault of the scheme. Like with reservation, I may be eligible but I can always choose to forego it.” Instead he attributes the lacklustre response to the scheme coinciding with the slowdown.