ABDULLAH MUGHAL

LAHORE: The Social Welfare and Bait-ul-Maal (SW&BM) Punjab is all set to recruit at least 180 persons with disabilities (PWDs) from across the province who will be liable to identify and facilitate such other persons within their jurisdiction and convey their issues to authorities concerned for prompt redressal.

A senior official familiar with the development told Business Recorder that the SW&BM Punjab will recruit the PWDs in three categories which include hearing and speech impaired, physical disabled and visually-impaired persons.

“In this regard, the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) is about to complete interviews of the PWDs from various districts and they will soon be recruited into the department,” the official said.

It may be noted that the decision came after several recent protests, rallies and sit-ins held by special persons, particularly visually-impaired persons, demanding permanent status for their jobs in government departments and relaxment in the rules and regulations of recruitment process.

According to the PC-I of the initiative, these persons will be called ‘Social Need Officers’ (SNOs) and will be inducted in BS-11 grade and they will work under the Provincial Council for the Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons (PCRDP) which was formed by the SW&BM Punjab for collection of grants from government and private organisations having capacity of over 100 employees.

The purpose of the formation of the PCRDP was to provide ‘proper rehabilitation’ and suitable jobs to the PWDs after identification of nature of their disability.

Under the initiative, the department will recruit five SNOs which include two hearing and speech challenged, two physically and one visually impaired person from each district of the province. The SNOs will be recruited amongst the PWDs who will help other PWDs, the document suggests.

It will be mandatory for the SNOs to identify disabled persons within their jurisdiction and facilitate them in their certification and registration with the government. They will also be liable to make disabled people aware of existing welfare interventions of the government and help them get benefits from these programmes.

The SNOs will be responsible for medical needs assessment (assistive devices, artificial limbs, surgeries etc.) and livelihood needs assessments (trainings, microfinance and soft jobs). They will also be responsible for compliance of quarterly review reports about the issues of PWDs and other relevant assignments by deputy directors.