Employee life cycle of person with disabilities A study in Indian context

Abstract

The study investigates why the unemployment rate among persons with disabilities (PwD) in India remains markedly higher than among non-disabled individuals, and proposes a practical, sector-tested pathway to close this gap across the Employee Life Cycle (ELC). Grounded in India s commitments under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (2016), the research moves beyond declarative inclusion toward operational solutions that employers can adopt at scale. Using 2011 Census indicators that record a 64 percent unemployment rate for PwD versus 9.1 percent for non-PwD, the study frames the problem as one of systemic misalignment where recruitment, job design, and deployment practices fail to match capabilities with job demands rather than an absence of willingness or potential. The central intervention tested is a disability-aware skill matrix that explicitly maps job tasks to capability profiles, thus enabling better role assignment, more accurate evaluation of performance potential, and improved outcomes throughout the ELC newline