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Rural dilemma: When employment is not enough
This article is authored by B Sree Lakshmi, programme lead, Persons with Disability, Dr Reddy’s Foundation.
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There is a question mark on the face of many persons with disabilities (PwDs) who walk into a skill development centre. They come with hope. They want to learn. They want to earn. They want to become independent. But behind that hope is often a difficult question: “After I complete this training, what happens next?”
Having worked closely with persons with disabilities and their livelihoods for many years, I have increasingly felt that our understanding of PwD employment needs to go beyond training and placement. Getting a person into a job is important, but for many rural and semi urban PwDs, the real challenge begins after placement.
For PwDs who have completed only schooling, the available entry level opportunities are often concentrated in sectors such as retail, hospitality, logistics, BPO and other service sector roles. These jobs are important. They provide an entry point into the formal labour market and, for many young people, represent their first experience of earning an income. But the question is what happens after six months or one year. In many cases, the work remains largely repetitive. The same tasks continue to be assigned, opportunities for role enhancement are limited, and salary increments are marginal. The employee may be technically employed, but does not necessarily see a career developing.
The initial excitement of earning a salary gradually gives way to a feeling of stagnation. For someone living away from home and earning perhaps ₹12,000– ₹18,000 a month, the calculation becomes even more difficult. The family may ask: Is it worth staying away from home for this income? For married PwDs or those with family responsibilities, the answer is sometimes to return to their villages and start a small business or livelihood activity. For others, there may be no immediate alternative. They return to the same situation they were in before training, at home, dependent on the family and without meaningful economic activity.
This is where I believe the disability skilling ecosystem needs to ask a different question. Are we preparing PwDs for employment, or are we preparing them for economic mobility? A job can provide income today. A career provides the possibility of increasing income, responsibility, skills and independence over time. The difference is significant. PwDs who have completed graduation generally have access to a wider range of occupations and are more likely to find opportunities where experience can lead to higher responsibilities and better remuneration.
However, a much smaller proportion of PwDs reach higher education. According to Census data, only around 13% of persons with disabilities had completed graduation. This educational gap has consequences that extend far beyond the classroom. When a young PwD enters the labour market without higher education, the available occupational choices become narrower. Skilling can make them employable, but it cannot always overcome the structural limitations created by years of unequal access to education.
For a rural PwD, the dilemma is even sharper. The better-paying jobs may be concentrated in cities. Moving to a city means leaving family, community and familiar surroundings. But if the urban job offers limited growth and only a modest salary, migration may not remain attractive for long. The result can become a cycle of training, urban employment, repetitive work, limited growth, family pressure, return to the village, and eventually self-employment or inactivity. This is not necessarily a failure of the individual. It may be a failure of the ecosystem around the individual. We have focused considerably on creating employability and achieving placement numbers. Perhaps the next stage of our thinking should focus on creating career pathways.
I see three areas that could make a significant difference. First, employers need to create progression pathways for PwDs. Service sector employers are expanding rapidly beyond the major metropolitan cities. There is an opportunity to create employment closer to where PwDs live. But hiring alone is not enough. Employers should consider role rotation, structured upskilling, internal mobility, promotions and movement into supervisory or specialised functions. A PwD who enters an organisation as an entry level employee should be able to see a possible pathway to the next role. The question should not only be, “Can we hire this person?” It should also be: “Where can this person be in three years?”
Second, self-employment should become an integral part of skilling programmes. Self-employment is often treated as a second option for those who cannot find a job. For rural PwDs, it may need to be viewed differently. A small enterprise close to home can sometimes provide greater sustainability than a low paying job that requires migration. But self-employment cannot simply mean giving a person a small grant and expecting the business to succeed. It needs an ecosystem, business idea identification, skills, seed capital, market linkage, digital tools, financial literacy, mentoring and continued handholding. The objective should be to create viable livelihoods, not merely distribute assets.
Third, we need to dramatically increase the participation of PwDs in higher education. This is perhaps the most important long-term intervention. Government and private educational institutions need to actively encourage PwD enrolment and create an environment in which students with disabilities can complete higher education successfully. Accessibility, assistive technology, reasonable accommodation, scholarships, transportation, accessible learning materials and career guidance are not additional benefits. They are essential enablers. If more PwDs reach graduation and acquire specialised skills, their employment choices will expand significantly.
There is another possibility that deserves greater attention. Instead of continuously asking rural PwDs to move to cities for employment, can we take more employment opportunities closer to them? The growth of digital services, distributed operations, e-commerce, financial services, rural service centres and other service sector activities creates an opportunity to rethink where work can happen. If employers, governments, educational institutions and skilling organisations work together, rural and smaller town locations could potentially become centres of employment and enterprise for PwDs. This could reduce migration, strengthen family support systems and allow PwDs to remain connected to their communities while earning a livelihood.
The disability sector has rightly celebrated training numbers and placement percentages. These remain important indicators. But perhaps we need to add another set of questions. How many candidates are still employed after one year? How many have received a promotion or moved into a better role? How much has their income increased? How many sustainable enterprises have started? How many have progressed to higher education? And perhaps the most important question: How many PwDs can build an independent and dignified life in the place where they live? The future of PwD skilling cannot be only about getting someone through a training programme and into the first available job. It must be about creating a pathway. A pathway from education to skills, skills to employment or enterprise, employment to progression, and income to independence. For the rural PwD, that pathway could be transformative. The real opportunity may not be to teach a rural PwD how to leave the village for a job. It may be to create an ecosystem where a rural PwD can build a career, enterprise and dignified life without having to leave the village at all.
(The views expressed are personal)
This article is authored by B Sree Lakshmi, programme lead, Persons with Disability, Dr Reddy’s Foundation.
