Why we should employ the disabled

As per the Indian government’s census of 2011, India has about 27 million persons with disabilities. Out of this, about 19% have hearing impairment, 19% vision impairment, 20% physical / movement related disability, 7.5% speech related and the remaining other disabilities.

Persons with disabilities as a group, are more likely to experience adverse socio economic outcomes, worse health outcomes, less employment and higher poverty rates. It’s relatively easier for the physically disabled at getting jobs, but it is the hearing and visually impaired people that find it almost impossible to get any jobs. Out of the 27 million, only 0.1 million people have succeeded in getting employment!

Hearing Impaired                             Visually Impaired

Earlier, there weren’t many jobs that the visual and hearing impaired and severely disabled could do. But today, technology has made so many impossible things possible. There are screen readers and OCRs that help the visually impaired, foot pedal, joy stick and other devices that assist the physically challenged. And the NGO Enable India does a very good job of training people of all kinds of disabilities and making them employable.

 

Physically Disabled                                          Cerebral Palsy

But most people are not aware that people with such severe disabilities are able to do many of the jobs that people without disabilities can do. In fact, there are about 300 roles that people with disabilities can perform and Enable India has done extensive study and research and has come up with the list of job roles that people with each kind of disability can perform in some cases with assisted technologies.

There are several examples of people with disabilities having successful careers.

• Pratap is working as an Analyst at an international bank. He has cerebral palsy and jerks from head to toe. He uses a special keyboard, customized foot pedal and customized joystick to execute commands on the computer.
• Vinodh Kumar who has visual impairment AND is hard of hearing, works as a database management expert at an MNC
• Deepa has profound physical disabilities. She cannot use her hands or move on her own. But she is the diversity lead at an IT firm. She operates an on-screen keyboard using a joystick. She moves around in an automatic wheelchair and has hired a helper for her personal needs
• Saurabh is a Vice President at a bank despite having low vision and hard of hearing
• Sumanth has cerebral palsy and 65% of his body is spastic. He used to work as a market analyst but he had a dream of studying management at a top B school. He worked hard, appeared for CAT and today, at IIM Indore, he is ready to take on the world!

And all of these people perform on par with the rest of the people and often times even better. The rate of attrition amongst these people is very low, but hard work and commitment very high. So it makes business sense to employ them. We are not doing THEM a favour but doing ourselves a favour!

So there is no doubt about the need to employ people with disabilities, that it makes business sense and that they can perform at par with anyone else. And yet we hardly see any people with disabilities around our workplaces. I think it is because of lack of awareness. Most organizations have a disability agenda and the management’s buy in to employ the disabled. But there is a total lack of awareness at the grassroots level. Direct line managers are not aware that assisted technologies are available with which people with disabilities can perform on par with people without disabilities. In fact, often times these people outperform the others. Many times over! Not just at work, but in sports, art, dancing, swimming and any thing that you can think of.

Way to go girl!                                               Such a graceful dancer!

So I need all of you to please spread the awareness. Tell everyone you know, of the above success stories. Tell them that it is good for the business to employ these people. Tell them they deserve an equal and fair opportunity. Let’s give them employment and make this world a better place. For them, and for us.

 

 

The Russian Odyssey

Moscow University

Peter’s head on Columbus’ body

War memorial square

Moscow skyline

 

Living the childhood dream

We started the Trans Siberian journey at Moscow or Moskva as the Muscovites call it. Now I have a special relationship with Russia, especially Moscow. As a kid, growing up in a Russia friendly India, I had heard so much about all things Russian. We had subscribed to a free Russian children’s magazine called Misha and read a lot of stories and culture. Growing up, I have read books by Russian authors like Leo Tolstoy, Dostoyevski, Nabokov. Heard about the Matryushka dolls and the onion domes of St. Basil’s cathedral. The Russian space program was one of the best in the world and as general knowledge we knew that the Russians Yuri Gagarin and Valentina Tereshokova was the first man and woman respectively, to go to space. We also used to hear about the Sputnik satellite and Soyuz and Salyut space shuttles and Mir space station. Also, Raj Kapoor made Russia popular with Mera Naam Joker and the Russian circus artistes. And we had heard Russians loved Raj Kapoor and his songs. So to me being in Russia was something very special, actually seeing the places and things you had heard of and fantasised as a kid, imagined myself as characters in the stories, and now experiencing it for real, was like living a fairy tale.

Moskva

We saw the Kremlin and red square. There was music, street artistes, Lenin and Stalin look alikes, food, drinks and tons and tons of tourists at the square, it was like a carnival. The sound of the gongs of the cathedral were so soothing to the mind. The walls of St. Basil’s cathedral were all painted with icons, flowers and looked resplendent. There was gold everywhere and the tall spires and paintings gave a very royal feel. The cathedral was built by Ivan the terrible after winning a war with the Kazans. It has nine domes, one central and 8 surrounding, all in different colors and patterns – red, yellow, green, gold, it looks like a fairy tale castle. All churches in the country had onion domes and most were gilded and shone bright in the sunlight.

 

Red Square

Around the Red Square

St. Basils Cathedral

Kremlin across the Moskva River

Artist’s Park

Statue of Stalin

I have been to several metro and subway trains around the world (and I have travelled to 28 countries so far, so have seen quite a few), this was by far the most well maintained. Each metro station is designed differently with beautiful architecture, sculptures, frescoes, it looks stunning. One station had stained glass, one Greek carvings, one had sculptures, one mosaic and each station had different chandeliers and lights.

 

Had read so much about the Russian KGB and read dozens of books about Russian spies and espionage during the cold war. So when we actually got to see the KGB head quarters, it felt so spooky! The Moskva river flows through the city and the Kremlin office building stands majestic on it’s banks. We also visited the Artists park that had many beautiful sculptures. Near the park on the banks of Moskva river, stood a tall sculpture of Columbus but with Peter the Great’s head on it! The Moscow University was a huge imposing building with a beautiful lawn and fountain and water body in the front. It looks palatial with beautiful architecture and so many rooms. Would be wonderful to study there. We did some souvenir shopping on Arbat street that was like a bazaar with so many people, artists, someone playing music, someone singing songs and another person creating art on the road at the beat of music and drums! We chatted up with a painter who had some really beautiful paintings and we picked up a couple of his beautiful pieces of art. One was of a ballet artiste Giselle whom he had painted in a ballet motion. It’s so beautiful, I can imagine Giselle dancing to Tchaikovsky!

Moscow University

Peter’s head on Columbus’ body

War memorial square

Moscow skyline

The Russian Ballet

We were fortunate to attend one of the oldest classical ballets “La Sylphide” at the 150 years old Bolshoi theatre and that too in the Historic stage! The lead lady artiste had such a slender waist, I wonder if she ate anything at all. She was on her toes most of the time and whenever she put her feet down, it was done so gracefully. She split her feet and ran across the stage landing on her toes so gently before leaping again. It looked like a butterfly flitting about, so gentle and beautiful in a white dress, she looked like an angel or a fairy. All the other artists also danced equally well and with colourful attire. The forest scene with clouds was recreated so beautifully, it was almost magical. Couldn’t believe this was artificially created on stage, it was that good. We had all dressed up for the show wearing short dresses and high heels even though it was cold that evening! This was one of the most memorable performances I’ve seen, and I’ve seen quite a few.

Interstellar

I’ve always been fascinated by space and keenly read all books and articles on space, watch movies and documentaries related to it. As a kid I have read about Russia’s Sputnik satellite and their Salyut space station. So when we got to see their space museum, I was delighted! In fact our lovely guide Lena told me that the first woman in space Valentina Tereshkova is still alive and lives in Moscow! I would love to meet her on my next visit to Moscow (Yes I do wanna go back there again!). We saw replicas of Salyut, Soyuz, Mir space station, Sputnik, the ejectable cubicle that cosmonauts use to come back on earth. We even took a ride simulating going to space and landing on another planet! It was all so surreal. I wish I can go to space some day. Even if I get just a one way ticket, I’d happily take it!

 

 

Siberia

Our next stop was the University town Irkutsk, a town in the heart of Siberia, bang in the middle of the continent. The highlight of this place was lake Baikal, which is 25 million years old, 636km long and 80km at its widest point. It has 3500 species of plants and animals and has 20% of the world’s surface fresh water! It is home to the silvery grey fresh water seals that are curious and funny and look so cute! Incidentally, the military aircraft making factory in Irkutsk, sells aircrafts to India. Siberia became a part of Russia in 1456. The local tribe in Siberia is Avanks but less than 50,000 Avanks remain today. The lake freezes in winter and people go iceskating on the lake and even drive cars on it! In October, people go scuba diving in the lake to enjoy the various species of life in water.

 

One day we stayed in a small town Listvyanka and our hotel there was beautiful, like a resort. It’s a quaint little town with lovely churches, cottages with backyards that had horses and dogs. The sky was a brilliant blue and we experienced the most dramatic sunset on the banks of the lake. In Irkutsk, there was pollen (from the poplar tree) everywhere and so much of it, that it looked like snow falling from the sky. It was white and cottony / woolly and there was so much of it, I’ve never seen so much pollen ever.

Our guide Yana was one of the best guides and she took us to her Orthodox Christian church. She said 90% of Russians are Christians. Yana, the driver Igor and we had lunch together and conversations started flowing. Igor had so many questions about India, spirituality, religion, saree, Bollywood. In fact Siberia has 2 Indian TV channels and Igor has seen so many Indian movies. As expected, he knew Raj Kapoor and his entire khandaan, but he also knew Mithun Chakraborty and Disco Dancer!

Culinary delight

Meena and I are vegetarian so our choices were limited. But we still explored and tried various local dishes. Borsch is a beetroot soup that is popular in Russia. We had a veg soup that had potatoes, carrot, cabbage and beetroot. We also tried the boiled potatoes with dil, buckwheat with mushrooms which was delicious. But what we enjoyed the most was Georgian food. The beetroot salad garnished with pomegranate seeds, pumpkin soup, Georgian cheese bread, a grilled eggplant dish, everything was yummilicious!

Dasvidanya

The thing that struck me the most about Moscow, was it has so much space. Very wide roads, lots of public spaces, and it was very neat and clean despite having a huge population. It was summer time and there were arches made of flowers on most streets, flower pots everywhere with flowers of every imaginable color. There were so many parks and gardens in the city and sculptures and memorials everywhere. I wish India, especially Bangalore had more public spaces and was neat and clean. Fat hopes I guess… sigh.