Persons with disabilities more prolific

It is heartening to find that persons with disabilities in our country have better output and are more loyal to their employers than other persons. This very significant fact was revealed at a discussion programme dealing with the training and employment needs of young people with disability organised by Access Bangladesh Foundation and Action Aid. It is worth noting too that the cost of disability due to lost income and lack of schooling of people with disability amounts to 1.7 percent of the GDP.  

These findings reinforces the demand, something that this paper has strongly endorsed, that persons with disabilities should not be considered a burden but an asset like any other person, and even better given the foregoing finding. Thus while we are obligated from the social point of view to offer all support to persons with disabilities in all respects, the state should offer them all necessary facilities and opportunities, not out of sympathy or as manna but as their basic right as  citizens so that they can contribute even more efficiently and easily to the country's needs. Regrettably, very few persons with disability are having the benefit of the training imparted by the vocational training institutes. 

In this regard the suggestions of the discussants at the said discussion merits cognizance by the government. Firstly, it is important to set up appropriate training facilities for skills development of the persons with disabilities and secondly, identify appropriate employers for these people. But before that what is needed is that there should be a countrywide survey of such people and the type of jobs they can perform according to their ability.