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Subject: corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative
Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:56:13 +0530
CSR for the ‘differently abled’
CB Bureau, New Delhi, January 14, 2011In the very beginning of the year, a news
story in one of the leading dailies of the country talked about how one wedding
matchmaking website was cashing in on the ‘ability matrimony’ platform.
BharatMatrimony, as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR)
initiative, thought of connecting people with disabilities including physical
impairment, mobility impairment, hemiplegia, spinal impairment, vision
impairment, learning disability, quadriplegia and paraplegia. They offered the
entire service – from registration to seeking the right match – for free. The
idea was to get all people with special needs, and those who wanted to marry
them, on the same platform.
Interestingly, what makes this initiative special is not just the idea, but
also the fact that the service is being provided for free and is a part of the
CSR initiative of a dotcom/digital venture. Such CSR-oriented investment by a
dotcom company in a country (with merely four per cent of the population using
internet) where internet businesses are still at a nascent stage, is highly
commendable.
Another fact to be acknowledged is that the company has focused on the
‘disability’ cause, which – for unknown reasons – does not rank high on the CSR
initiatives list of many companies and is under-shadowed by environment,
education, or public health.
NASSCOM initiatives for the disabled
Another organization that talks about ‘total inclusion’ is NASSCOM Foundation
(NF), the social development arm of NASSCOM, India’s premier information
technology (IT) industry body. The organization is engaged in empowering and
enabling persons with disabilities (PwDs) in the IT workforce.
To mark World Disability Day on December 3, 2010, NASSCOM Foundation launched a
series of activities all across India, starting with the release of a Document
on Workplace Inclusivity listing five principles that enable and empower PwDs,
at NASSCOM’s Diversity & Inclusivity Summit 2010 held in Bangalore on November
22.
‘The government has a target to ensure that three per cent of the workforce are
PwDs. NASSCOM, through its Accessibility Initiative, is pushing hard to ensure
that IT companies create policies, ease physical access to workplaces, and use
assistive technologies. Some IT companies are doing some groundbreaking work
here. We, at NASSCOM Foundation, want to encourage this and have released a
document containing the principles and best practices to employ persons with
disability. We will also have job fairs and volunteering and career counselling
workshops for persons with disabilities,’ Rita Soni, CEO of NASSCOM Foundation,
had said during the release of the document.
The organization did host a job fair for persons with disabilities on December
10, 2010, in New Delhi. The fair promoted employment not on the basis of
compassion or reservation, but purely on their capabilities and their
qualifications.
On December 16, 2010, the foundation organized a volunteering session in
Kolkata for the employees of NASSCOM member companies. The session took the
volunteers through an experience at an NGO, in order to sensitize employees to
the challenges faced by PwDs.
NASSCOM Foundation also initiated the Accessibility Initiative in 2010. The
initiative aims to create an industry platform to empower people with
disabilities, using the collective strength of NASSCOM member companies. It has
approached the issue through awareness building for employment, physical
(barrier-free workplace) and web accessibility, and assistive technology.
>From Tata Steel
As part of its CSR, Tata Steel, too, claims that it believes in empowering the
marginalized sections of society. The company, on a regular basis, also
organizes sporting events and cultural programmes for the physically
challenged.
On World Disability Day, 2010, to acknowledge that the challenged ones are an
equal and important part of the community, the company organized a sports
event. Around 200 visually impaired, hearing impaired and physically challenged
special children participated in the event.
Tata Steel Rural Development Society organizes camps for people afflicted with
leprosy. It works closely with various organizations to demonstrate self-care
to those who suffer from leprosy and also distributes self-care kits. It also
selects patients for reconstructive surgery.
IBM technology for disabled
IBM says that it believes in using its core competency – technology – to help
solve some of the key issues of society. It developed Reading Companion, a
programme to increase literacy among children and adults. It is a
speech-recognition technology for the classroom. Accessibility is another
programme designed specially to make technology accessible to groups who are
conventionally not associated with using technology – physically/mentally
challenged or socially/economically backward people.
IBM India supported the entire hardware and software requirements for computer
centres at Victoria Memorial School for the Blind in Mumbai, Mitra Jyothi
Centre for People with Disabilities in Bengaluru, and IETE-IBM computer centre,
Noida, all of which are dedicated to providing IT skills to visually impaired
people.
IBM professes commitment to an inclusive work environment where ideas and
contributions are welcome regardless of gender, disability, ethnicity, or
sexual orientation. The IBM website says that it hired its first person with
disability in 1914. With almost a 100-year heritage of commitment, IBM's Policy
for People with Disabilities has since revolved around the 3As:
Accommodation: Facilities that IBM provides to enable employees to work more
independently and productively
Accessibility: Providing people with disabilities the technology tools in the
workplace and in the marketplace, such as voice-recognition software – the
HomePage reader. Currently, there are nine Accessibility centres worldwide,
each focusing on designing and deploying products appropriate for people with
disabilities
Attitude: Changing the values and beliefs that some people have with regard to
people with disabilities is very important. IBM actively recruits, hires and
promotes people with disabilities. IBM helps promote an attitude of
non-discrimination and offers opportunities to deserving individuals
In India, in addition to e-learning resources that focus specifically on
building commitment to people with disability, IBM has a face-to-face Diversity
& Inclusive Leadership training programme that is aimed to promote an inclusive
workplace.
IBM has also initiated meetings with PwD employees to understand and address
their unique concerns. It has established a voluntary PwD Network – EnABLErs at
IBM, which is a forum in which PwD joinees can participate, especially when
they are new to IBM. It has empanelled NGOs who are working to provide
companies with qualified PwD candidates and assist them on this ongoing
journey.
MphasiS on disability
The MphasiS website reads that its CSR is focused around three areas –
education, employability and entrepreneurship development.
The company claims that when it wanted to hire and invest in professionally
sound persons with disabilities, it faced the challenge of not getting the
right candidates. So, it took the first step to drive the change and introduce
new initiatives.
The company realized that in most of the technical institutions – like
engineering and management schools – only students with milder disabilities
were given admission. Those who struggled their way through did not get any
academic support from the institution to perform on par with other non-disabled
students. As a result of lack of support and access in the educational
institutions, students with disabilities had a challenge becoming work-ready.
As a first pioneering step in creating inclusive environment in a professional
institution, MphasiS supported setting up of an Office of Disability Services
at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. Not many institutes have any
mechanism to provide academic support to students with disabilities. MphasiS in
partnership with institutes like the IIM has begun introducing professional
education for students with disabilities.
The company has a lot of ‘non-voice jobs’ where interaction with the client is
through email and chat. Keeping in mind the constraints of the jobs, it hired
persons with hearing disabilities in such processes. However, lack of skills in
written English has resulted in people with hearing disability not getting
suitable employment. To tackle this, MphasiS entered into a partnership with
Noida Deaf Society in 2010. It is now supporting English literacy of 250
hearing-impaired youth and also training them in skills that would lead to
their becoming employable.
The company has over 27 hearing-impaired people working in non-voice BPO and
ITO processes. It also outsources work to NGOs like Enable India, which becomes
a tool of indirect employment of persons with disabilities.
MphasiS has also partnered with Fourthwave Foundation to support a programme
aimed at inclusion of children with disabilities in mainstream schools.
God Bless you
Regards,
Patrick Rodrigues
9969159856
