Economic Independency and Occupational Engagement of Persons with Disabilities in West Bengal: A Case Study

Disabled people are one of the very needy, marginalized and discriminate people living in the society. They are bypassed in the process of economic development. Economic independency is one of the positive factors for the upliftment of individual as well the society. Economic engagement of individual depends on multifactor such as, physical, social, cultural, economic, political and so on. In the spectrum of occupational engagement, disabled persons are lag behind in each and every society due to social, political and perceptual factors.

In this paper an attempt has been made to investigate the economic independency of persons with disabilities as well as their occupational engagement in different economic activities in the state of West Bengal. The data used in this study is absolutely empirical in nature which has been gathered from direct field observation. Simple percentage and ratio method are used to analyze the data. The study reveals that about 39 per cent disabled are either fully or partially independent while rests are fully dependent on others. Highest portion of them are self employed, followed by cultivation and begging. Study also find out that hearing disabled, speech disabled, other disabled and visual disabled are comparatively independent than multiple and mental disabled. Study further shows that no suitable work, not call for work etc. are the major reasons of economic dependency for the persons with disabilities in the state.