Abling the differently-abled

Mohit Puri, 26, has finished his 12th standard and is doing his degree in history and political science.

Puri who has cerebral palsy is waiting for his turn at the National Blind School in the Capital at the first-ever recruitment fair organised for people with cerebral palsy, autism, mental retardation and multiple disability. He says he just has difficulty in standing straight. He can even drive, his mother adds.

Puri waits with a copy of his resume as HR officials of IBM, Jindal Saw, NTPC, ITC and many other companies interview other candidates who are attending the job fair.

Manmohan, who is currently doing a course in IT after finishing higher secondary, suffers from autism. His father, employed in Doordarshan, says that this is his first-ever interview.

About 50 of them were short-listed by the ministry of social justice in partnership with the industry and NGOs after two meetings with parents where the limitations of the candidates were documented to enable companies to find matching jobs.

This is just first of the four job fairs being planned jointly by industry, NGOs and the government. Three more are coming soon in Kolkata, Bangalore and in Mumbai or Pune which, however, would be looking at candidates with orthopaedic disabilities and impaired vision, hearing and speech.

Growing awareness about the employability of people with disabilities, pressure for affirmative action besides attrition rates in the industry have triggered interest in the private sector in finding manpower among the disabled.

The idea, says Sujit Gupta head of the CII's Committee on Special Abilities, is to correct the anomaly of under-representation of the disabled in the private sector.

He cites the recent World Bank figures for disabled in the private sector. It is a poor 0.221 per cent. We have set a target of 1 per cent by the end of 2008 just within the members of CII, says Gupta. And they are a good 6,000-odd companies employing 50 lakh people, Gupta reminds. He does not deny that the steep attrition rates in the companies are also driving the industry into appreciating the skills and talents of the differently-abled.

It is for the industry to understand that the differently-abled are as good as workers with almost zero attrition rates, says Gupta. If you see in the IT and ITeS sector, the biggest problem is to retain. We are not saying that all differently-abled have the skill sets to suit the company's needs. But look at those who have them, he says.

CII's placement targets for the next three years are 3 per cent and then in the following two years 5 per cent.

The industry is no longer on the defensive. It is now ready to act, or so it appears. There was an awareness gap. We have tried to fill it and in the last two years there have been queries from companies who want to recruit but don't know how, says Gupta.

ITC has been in the forefront of this movement within the industry. In the last 18 months, ITC Welcomgroup alone had recruited 148 differently-abled persons. We have absorbed them through our supply chains and our hotels, says Niranjan Khatri of ITC Welcomgroup. It is a continuous process and a lot of work remains to be done, he says.

"The competing needs of the industry for skilled persons is growing rapidly and yawning gaps are already beginning to emerge between supply and demand. In this scenario, Indian industry could look at opportunities to employ people with disability not out of sympathy, but sensitively, creatively and empathetically," says Khatri.

The one obstacle that the industry has found in recruiting differently-abled is the lack of a platform where various players in the sector could be brought together.

Business Community Foundation whose founding members include Bajaj Auto, Cadbury, GlaxoSmithKline has been functioning as an interface between the industry and community for the last 10 years and networking between disability groups, parents groups and the industry.