Over quarter of country's work force suffer disabilities

Ridma Dissanayake

Sri Lanka has a work force of eight million of which 27 percent suffer from severe disabilities. Twenty one percent of them are males and other five percent females, Labour Minister Gamini Lokuge said yesterday.

According a decision taken by the Cabinet in 2003 the government has taken measures to provide a minimum of three percent job opportunities in the state and private sector to persons with disabilities, he added.

Addressing a special press briefing at the Labour Ministry Auditorium the minister observed that persons with disabilities have the right to a decent occupation. Many of them are well-educated and has the ability to work efficiently. "The persons with disabilities have many good qualities. They are very loyal to the institutions they work in and their productivity is much higher than the others.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has also not forgotten to mention persons with disabilities in his Mahinda Chinthana future vision. Hence we have made arrangements to make persons with disabilities part and parcel of normal society.

A special programme to mark International Day of Persons with Disabilities falls on December 3", Minister Lokuge said. The Labour Ministry and Social Services Ministry will hold a job fair on December 13 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute to mark International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

This is being organized in collaboration with International Labour Organization, Sightsavers, Employer Federation of Ceylon, Development with Disability Network, Disabled Organizations Joint Front and Leonard Cheshire International. The national ceremony of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities to be held under the patronage of President Mahinda Rajapaksa on December 3, he further said.