My motivation for the grand goal of getting jobs for 50 disabled

My aunt’s left side was completely paralyzed due to a polio attack. One of my best friends in my school right from class 2 is physically disabled. My aunt (mom’s sister) is hard of hearing due to an accident in childhood. My friend’s cousin had cerebral palsy. So I grew up with disabled people around me and I have a lot of empathy for them. Incidentally none of them got employment. But all this was just there somewhere in my mind. I did not consciously think about them not getting jobs.

Then last December, I met a very smart kid. Biswa had completed Mechanical Engineering and was looking for a job. He is intelligent, can grasp things quickly, is very passionate and hard working. But he could not get a job. He is so lively, cheerful, full of life and hope and dreams about the future, like any kid would be, just out of college with an engineering degree in hand. He drives a car, bike, goes para sailing, snorkelling, loves photography. Just like any of us. He wants to earn a lot of money, travel the world, buy a house and a fancy car. Just like any of us. The only thing keeping him from his ambitions is his disability – he is hearing impaired. And that’s no fault of his. He was born that way.

    His dream car that he will buy some day and take me for a ride in!

So that’s what got me thinking. I wanted to do something for him. I wanted to get him a job, a fair chance at earning a livelihood and the dignity of being self-reliant and not being dependent on people, sometimes even strangers. So why do people not give the hearing impaired a job? It’s because they are not sure these people can perform on par with the so called “normal” people. That’s when I got introduced to the NGO “Enable India” who is doing a fantastic job in training people with all kinds of disabilities (hearing / visual / speech impaired, physical disability, autism, cerebral palsy) and makes them employable. They are also tied up with corporates for placement of these candidates. So I recommended Biswa to undergo a training with them. Once the training got over, they arranged for interview and he got placed at EMC! His joy knew no bounds! He was finally employed and now he can slowly but surely go after all his dreams, goals and ambitions.

   His pet dog Jim whom he adores and who understands his language well!

And I thought, if he could do it, anyone can. I then went to Enable India and met people there with all kinds of disabilities – a completely visually impaired person working on a computer as good as I do, learnt about a person with cerebral palsy working as a senior programmer at an IT firm, a visually impaired and hard of hearing person working as an analyst, a hearing impaired person working as software tester. And all of these people were great performers. Their managers were extremely happy with their work and performance.

That’s when I decided that I am going to get 50 PWD (Persons with Disability) a job. Yes that sounds very ambitious. But I am not one who settles for less. I like to take on giant sized challenges. And I have a huge network of friends, colleagues, acquaintances and well-wishers to support me. Together we will make it happen!!

 

Teach Them to Fish

Humans are the most advanced species. They have intellect. They have empathy. They have the ability to understand another’s pain and help them. But somehow we don’t seem to be providing the required support to our disabled fellow humans. Just helping a blind cross the road or giving a helping hand to a handicapped person is not enough. As the saying goes – Give a person a fish and he eats for a day; teach him to fish and he eats for a lifetime.

We need to be more inclusive. We need to give them equal opportunities. We need them in the same school, learning side by side with us. They deserve an equal chance at education whether they are autistic or with cerebral palsy or dyslexic. They deserve to get job opportunities like any one of us. We do find the occasional physically disabled, but there are hardly any blind, deaf or autistic people in our workplaces. They need financial independence, self respect, livelihood and support as much as we do. And some more. But we only have sympathy for them. They actually don’t need sympathy. They need empathy. They need support. They need a job.

In the animal kingdom, there are so many instances of animals helping other animals both of the same species and even other species. Here are some pictures that demonstrate that.

We have always imagined cats and dogs to be born enemies, but it’s such a delight here to see a dog helping a cat climb a tree.

And here a horse is helping a dog cross the river.

An elephant trying to help a cat in distress who is stuck and unable to get to safety.

We should take a lesson from them and help our fellow humans. By supporting them in a job. It’s not easy working with a deaf person in the team. You have to send emails instead of talk. Maybe learn sign language. It could make things slower. But a little bit of help and support to him/her will go a long way in building confidence both for them and for the team. Research has shown that such people are hard working, committed to their jobs, are loyal to their firms and bring in a lot of diverse views and ideas to the table that helps the business. So it’s a win-win situation.

Let us take that step to recruit a disabled person in our teams, put in that extra effort, make them feel belonged and included. And you will get amazing results. Plus the added bonus of having a great satisfaction of making a difference to someone’s life. Just think if you were in their place, how would you like to be treated. Reminds me of the prayer I was taught in school – Do unto others what you would want them to do unto you.