EmployABILITY 2012, Ability Foundation's trend setting job fair for people with disabilities, was held today at Zoroastrian Club, Secunderabad. EmployABILITY 2012 is being held in association with naukri.com, National Institute for the Mentally Handicapped (NIMH) and Sri Vishnu Educational Society.

This is the seventh edition of this landmark initiative, that brings together equal opportunity employers and qualified candidates with disabilities. First held in 2004, EmployABILITY has seen extremely successful editions and has aptly demonstrated that there exists a wealth of human resource potential amongst people with disabilities.

A total of 770 women and men from across 21 states of the country registered for the event . Their qualifications ranged from bachelors degrees in commerce and humanities , engineering and chartered accountancy to post graduate degrees in management. As many as 130 candidates were MBAs a significant increase over the previous edition.

Employers too represented most sectors of industry. There was a strong presence of retail and IT sectors, as well as representation of pharma, FMCG, insurance, manufacturing,hospitality, and consulting companies.

Addressing the organisers and participants, Shri Harsh Bhal, Chairman & Managing Director, National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation (NHFDC) said that today 95%of disabled youth are studying on their own, getting training on the their own, and despite the odds are coming to the forefront by the dint of their own strength and grit, and today these companies at EmployABILITY will be absorbing them on merit and not as a policy of special dispensation.

Col Surendra, Principal, BVRIT, said that he was happy to see the confident faces around him, spoke about BVRIT's efforts to include people with disabilities, especially the assistive technology lab set up at the college.

Shri Chandra Kammula SVP, Polaris, in his remarks urged the candidates to be confident and said that the companies present today would benefit greatly from having them on their workforce.

Shri T.S.Sivakumar, Director NIMH in his remarks congratulated Ability Foundation in their efforts coming forward as a job provider. He added that the government reservations for persons with disabilities must be replicated in the corporate sector.

Shri.C.Prabhakar, Director Welfare is disabled & senior citizens, Government of Andhra Pradesh spoke of the importance of inclusivity in Indian society and Ability Foundation's philosophy would go a long way toward this.

Jayshree Raveendran, Founder & Hon. Executive Director,Ability Foundation, stressed on the need to look upon employment of persons with disabilities as a valuable addition to the company. She emphasised the need to look at the strengths of people with disabilities, and to look at employment as an HR rather than a CSR initiative. There needs to be a productive relationship between the government, public and private sectors to be able to bring about a sustainable change, she said.

EmployABILITY2012 was sponsored by the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC), Polaris, and CavinKare Pvt Ltd. Co sponsors were Michelin and Wipro . The event was supported by FICCI Ladies' Organisation (FLO),Coca-Cola and Axis Bank Foundation.

Ability Foundation is a national disability organisation, working pan India and headquartered in Chennai. Set up in 1995, the steadfast focus is on an inclusive society in all spheres of life for all persons with disabilities. The core areas of the Foundation's work are information dissemination, employment & training and advocacy & policy. At the heart of it all, is the belief that given the right opportunities at the right time, and a level playing field, so much more is possible for people with disabilities. All it takes is an open mind.

Click here to see photographs of the event.