Survey reports less than 50% of disabled women in Indian state employed

From The Times of India:

CHENNAI, India -- While only 60% of women in the state are employed, less than 50% of disabled women hold jobs, according to a survey that was released on International Women's Day on March 8. Of the employed disabled women, nearly 40% are in craft-based and sheltered workshops.

The Status of Employment of Disabled Women in Tamil Nadu' was done by Tejas, a group of disabled women formed by the disability legislation unit of Vidya Sagar, along with Initiatives for Women in Development, an organisation that works for the empowerment of marginalised women.

"Employment is crucial for self-empowerment, a sense of security and independence for women," said Meenakshi B, assistant co-ordinator, disability legislation unit, Vidya Sagar, and one of the researchers.

"Even when disabled women are employed, their status of employment is lower. Most of them hold jobs that are lower paid and less challenging," she said.

And there was not a single professionally qualified disabled woman in the sample, while less than 10% of disabled women had higher educational qualifications. No severely disabled women in the sample had reached college-level education.

The study was done among 519 women in four districts Chennai, Mayavaram, Tenkasi and Kotagiri in Tamil Nadu. The sample included equal numbers of
disabled and non-disabled women, all of whom answered identical questionnaires.

It also focused on three potential reasons for poor employment status: education, disability and family support.

While education and disability does impact employment, in terms of family support, being disabled or non-disabled seemed to have very little bearing.

"There is an urgent need to improve the status of education and employment of disabled women. Education has a greater impact on employment status of women, whether disabled or not. The higher one's level of education, the better one's employment opportunities," said Meenakshi.