A workshop titled Disability Inclusive Workforce in Building was held last Wednesday afternoon at Chittagong Chamber Auditorium. Chittagong and Bangladesh Business and Disability Network (BBDN) jointly organized this workshop.
Chittagong Chamber President Omar Hajjaz as Chief Guest, BBDN Advisory Council Chairman and former Chamber Director Salahuddin Kasem Khan, ILO Chittagong Office Incharge Alexius Cheecham, Chamber Director Mahfuzul Haque Shah and Mohammad Aktar Parvez, BBDN Head as guest of honour. Of Operations Miss Aziza Ahmed, USEP Bangladesh Team Leader Nandita Chakraborty, Bangladesh Institute of Theater Arts (BETA) representative Bappi Chowdhury, IPSA Program Manager Newaz Mahmud and CRP Center Manager Md. Khalilur Rahman spoke. Golam Kabir, Senior Program Manager, BBDN presented a documentary on the main content of the workshop. Apart from this, Murtaza Rafi Khan, CEO of BBDNE, was connected online in the event.
In the speech of the chief guest, Omar Hajjaz said that the government is also providing tax concessions to encourage the employment of disabled people in private companies. Under the Income Tax Act, if an organization hires 10 percent of the total employees or more than 100 persons with disabilities, 75 percent of the salary paid to those employees or 5 percent of the tax payable, whichever is less, is given to the employer. He cited former American President Roosevelt as an example of famous physicist Stephen Hawking. He said, 10 percent of our total population is disabled which is more than the whole world. It is important to find out the reason why the number of disabled people is increasing in our country.
