The disabled as an economic resource
Ajay Kela
Posted: Monday, Apr 30, 2012 at 0324 hrs IST
India has a very unique talent pool of an estimated three million educated
disabled. What makes them so unique? The educated disabled have demonstrated
tremendous resilience and have been toughened by the challenges of inadequate
school facilities, lack of accommodating transport infrastructure and yet have
graduated from high schools and colleges. This segment of society reflects an
enormous 'can-do' attitude and is equipped with tremendous staying power which
corporate India can leverage.
Corporate India could derive better business value in terms of higher
productivity, reduced attrition and lowered training costs by employing this
talented pool within existing corporate jobs. Today, the average employment
rate of disabled people in the private sector is only 0.28%. The public sector
showed an employment rate of 0.54% even though the population of the disabled
in the country exceeds 6%.
The inherent reasons for the lack of sensitivity on behalf of the corporate
sector are a matter of concern. But, it hasn't helped that the government too
has fallen behind its plans. 'Scheme of Incentives to Employers in the Private
Sector for providing Employment to Persons with Disabilities (PwD)', which was
launched in 2008, was meant to create 1,00,000 jobs annually for the disabled.
It has barely created a few hundred. The ministry of social justice and
empowerment also seems unable to motivate the private sector through incentives
that encourage the employment of the disabled. The government has agreed to
reimburse the employers' contribution to the provident fund for disabled
employees earning up to R25,000 for the first three years. R1,800 crore was
sanctioned for this scheme under the 11th Five Year Plan. The revised estimate
for 2009-10 was R3 crore, of which only R1 crore was released.
The orthodox routes of disability management focused around welfare,
reservations, concessions, subsidies and other short-term practices have
clearly failed to deliver results. India has a large and unique population of
educated disabled with excellent leadership skills, staying capacity and
unparalleled productivity. Can the past be set aside and can corporate India
realise the business value of the three million educated disabled?
Large enterprises with foresight and taking a cue from western world, where the
disabled fare are already part of the mainstream, are working towards
leveraging this positive slice of the demographic pie. Companies such as Wipro,
Tata, Mindtree, GenPact, Symphony Services and Mphasis have recognised that the
disabled can solve many persistent human resource problems and are hiring the
disabled in encouraging numbers.
Across all sectors companies can employ people with disabilities that map to
specific jobs. For instance, the BPO industry has greater than 50% attrition of
current employees due to mismatch of job aspirations. Back-end data processing
can be handled by majority of physically disabled or those with speech and
hearing impairment.
Recently, Gitanjali Gems Ltd announced a training centre in Hyderabad that
would provide jobs to 1,000 PwDs. Others are creating similar examples in a bid
to use a resource that has so far remained hidden. Today's economy has the
ability to deliver a win-win solution for the disabled in society and for
corporate India.
Businesses have begun to recognise the wealth that exists in PwDs. They are
putting in place processes and support systems that can fine-tune this talent
to meet their needs. It is a momentous change silently taking place within the
folds of corporate India.
Organisations like the Wadhwani Foundation are propelling the change with their
mission of mainstreaming the educated disabled in corporate India. The
Foundation is driving training and placement of 1,00,000 disabled (in five
years) into sustainable high quality jobs within corporate India. They hope
that the companies will recognise the business value through these initial
hires and recruit the remaining educated millions, making it a self-sustaining
model. The Foundation works with companies to identify functional areas and
required competencies for potential jobs within the enterprise; it then
recruits and trains candidates in these competencies; and finally it
facilitates placement and provides post-placement support to the company and
the candidate. By matching skills to abilities of disabled candidates and
providing targeted, market -linked vocational training that is relevant to the
needs of employers, it enables PwDs to offer higher quality of work over a
sustained period of time. The Foundation's approach, which is replicable, has
delivered success in a wide variety of industries such as business process
outsourcing, remote infrastructure management, retail sales and facilities
management.
On the other hand, industry bodies such as Nasscom have established programmes
to pursue their member companies to make offices disabled friendly and are
conducting advocacy campaigns around business value of employing the disabled.
Today's corporate responsibilities are being redefined and businesses must work
towards better integration with the societies they serve. As corporate India
becomes more sensitised and addresses the needs of the disabled to create
sustainable business advantage, this is going to be one of the most significant
trends of the decade.
The author is president & CEO, Wadhwani Foundation
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/the-disabled-as-an-economic-resource/943345/0
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