Centre strikes down dispensing and reducing ranks of disabled employees

No government office should dispense with or reduce in rank an employee who acquires any disability during his service, the Centre has said.

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has amended the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972, to make it easier for such employees to continue in service or to get invalid pension -- which is granted if a government servant retires from service on account of any physical or mental infirmity that permanently incapacitates him from service.

The case of a government servant acquiring a disability, where the provisions of Section 47 of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 (1 of 1996) are applicable, shall be governed by the provisions of the said section, says the recently amended Pension rules.

 Section 47 of the Act mandates that "no establishment shall dispense with or reduce in rank an employee who acquires a disability during his service." It also makes it mandatory for the government departments not to deny promotion to "a person merely on the grounds of his disability".

If a government servant, in a case where the provisions of Section 47 of the Act are not applicable, retires from the service on account of any physical or mental infirmity that permanently incapacitates him from service, he may be granted invalid pension or service gratuity depending upon the length of his qualifying service on the date of retirement, the new rules said.

Also read : India has a long road ahead in becoming a disabled-friendly country

In case a government servant applies for an invalid pension, he shall be required to submit a medical certificate of incapacity from a medical board. India is home to 2.7 crore people living with at least one kind of disability. According to the 2011 Census, 2.21 percent of India’s population is disabled. Unlike the developed world, India’s disabled are made further socially vulnerable by the lack of quality education, lack of women’s safety, and attitudinal barriers as they continue to grapple with the challenges of access, acceptance, and inclusion.