I somehow dislike the tone of this article. It only seem to advertise the writer's ignorance than anything else. I don't know, for heaven's sake, when these writers would do their researches properly before putting the pen to paper. If this level of ignorance continue, our mainstream media would still write about telephone operators among blind people and their "remarkable" abilities to perform a job 50 years from now. I request the NGO's to first understand how far the journalist knows about the blind before concenting for interviews.
Subramani -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Suhas Karnik Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2007 5:00 PM To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Subject: [AI] an article fron mumbai mirror aboute medical transcription. Ref: Mumbai Mirror, July 24, 2007 A vision of hope The country's booming outsourcing industry brings good news to the blind Manoj R. Nair There are new job options for the blind now, apart from the usual work as telephone operators and railway announcers When Darjeeling native Uma Phago moved to Mumbai last year to fulfil her dream of being financially independent, the blind 23-year-old hoped to get a job at least as a telephone operator. So Phago's present job transcribing medical records for a BPO providing health care services is remarkable, especially because when she came to Mumbai, she had not heard of medical transcription. At her seat in the Godrej Industries Complex in Vikhroli, Phago listens to medical records dictated by doctors in major American hospitals. She converts details of diagnosis and physicals recorded in dictaphones to text form so that hospitals there can meet statutory rules requiring them to keep detailed medical records of patients. "When I was a child, my parents would tell me not to fight with my brothers because I would be dependent on them for life. This job gives me a sense of independence that was beyond my dreams," says Phago, who is studying for a bachelor's degree in arts from SNDT University. For people like Phago, India's booming outsourcing industry spells good news. A few months back, Tata Indicom inaugurated a call centre entirely serviced by blind employees to sell their telecom products. The company where Phago works, CBay Remote Services Limited employs around 400 people in India, including 100 trainees at various centres. At its Mumbai facilities, 10 employees, including four trainees, are blind. According to Pallavi Kadam, deputy director, National Association for the Blind (NAB) which provides vocational training and recruitmentTimes Ascent: Potential beyond boundaries http://www.timesascent.in/ services to the blind, call centres offer hope of creating mass employment for the blind. "For the first time, there are new job options for them, apart from the usual work as telephone operators and railway announcers." Phago's colleague Naeem Solkar learnt English stenography and basic computer programming after obtaining a degree in arts. "But no company was willing to employ me. Medical transcription is a great job opportunity for us," he says. Another worker, Akram Khan, was unemployed for a long time though he had a degree in economics and was trained to be a telephone operator. "Government jobs that once held promise for the blind are now few," he says. Hari Bhalerao, who works as a telephone operator and clerk at a public sector bank, says that at one time, the only jobs for blind people were as packers and cane chair-makers. "Later, we were employed as telephone operators. Few new job opportunities emerged after that. Call centres offer new hope for the unemployed blind," says Bhalerao. Shaival Trivedi, business head of CBay RSL, says the idea of employing blind workers came after a casual enquiry from NAB which had trained the first blind transcriptors in India four years back. "At that time, we were starting to train a new batch of recruits. We decided to give the NAB candidates a chance," says Trivedi. When the new recruits took their seats on the work floor, their presence initially bewildered the other workers and trainers. "It was a shock when we were informed that visually impaired workers were joining us. We have sighted people who struggle with the requirements of the job," says Raghunathan, a trainer. But the misgivings about the new workers were proved unwarranted when they met and even crossed daily targets. Depending on the size of the medical records of each patient, each operator is expected to transcribe between 15 and 20 files a day. The transcriptors are expected to convert one minute of voice based information into text in seven minutes. The trainers claim the new workers have rarely missed the target. "They have great listening and comprehension skills and that is what is required," says Trivedi. _________________________________________________________________ No. 1 Pvt. B - School in South Asia.Click here to know more http://ss1.richmedia.in/recurl.asp?pid=117 To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
