Women's Ministry achieves target of hiring people with disabilities

PUTRAJAYA: The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry has managed to achieve the targeted 1% policy on employing persons with disabilities (PWD).
Its Minister Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim (pix) said the government had introduced the policy in 1988 to ensure PWD's have the equal opportunity of being employed in the open labour force.
"The circular has been introduced in 1988, it has been a long time.
"But it is not meant to enforce, it's to encourage and (ministries) should try their very best to hire PWD workers," Rohani said during a press conference after she launched the Association of Southeast Nations (Asean) Workshop on Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) held at the Everly Hotel here.
Rohani added among the reasons why her ministry has achieved the target is due to the small number of its workforce.
She said that there were only 8,000 employees under the ministry and 1.6% are PWD's.
"At first we thought that 1% is not that much, but it actually means 1% of the total organisation.
"Imagine 1% of 100,00 people, and that's a lot," she said.
Rohani added certain ministries need to be realistic in achieving the target.
"Certain ministries like the Defence Ministry or Police (under Home Ministry) cannot implement this policy.
"If they still want to implement it, they should focus on hiring PWD's in the clerical department or anything related to it.
"That's why the policy is not mandatory, but it is encouraged, and ministries should look into the situation," she said.
As of March this year, there are 419,805 PWD's registered with the Department of Social Welfare.
"According to the World Report on Disability 2010 published by the World Health Organisation and the World Bank, approximately 15% of every population in a country are PWD's.
"And based on the current population in Malaysia, this would mean there are approximately 4.5 million PWD's in this country," she said.