Assessing Inclusion

A new hero, Fahimuddin recently hit the headlines. Hailed as a ‘real life Iqbal’, the hearing-impaired young man was selected among the probables for Delhi’s under-22 cricket team. His brother said that the best part about the selection is that Fahimuddin is being treated like a ‘normal’ person. But that statement exemplifies the attitude of society towards the physically challenged, not to mention the mentally challenged or whom the fundamental right to live and earn becomes a challenge in itself.

A. Nandi of the All India Federation of the Deaf points out that although his organisation trains people in skills like DTP and graphics, tailoring, photography and machine fitting and tuning, most remain unemployed. As soon as they hear of a disability, the hiring agencies refuse to even call them for an interview. Small private concerns also often pay lower rates to disabled employees.

Where is the space in everyday life or Iqbals, then? Just like in the Nagesh Kukunoor film, there are some who can see beyond the disability, and some who cannot.

Individual success

Sharmila Divatia, an encephalitis survivor holding a managerial post in a multinational, “I wouldn’t say that inclusion has become a part of the corporate world as yet. The world of education, yes”. Currently conducting a high level corporate training programme for her own colleagues, she says a “normal” person would have taken fewer years to reach where she has. Even so, she feels, “I am fortunate that my bosses have been good, but not everybody is so lucky.”

At the Delhi Blind Relief Association, Kailash Pande, Executive Secretary, and A.Daivd, Placement Officer, agree that with improving technology and lifestyle changes, new job avenues have opened for the visually impaired. Therapeutic massage and creative writing are some of the new ones. While government concerns like the National Thermal Power Corporation have a good track record, and many BRA alumni get jobs there, the onus remains on the disabled. “ We have to set an example, and an impressive one,” says Pande.

However, for nearly two decades, a small revolution has been brewing in the NCR’s garment export industry. Ask Nitasha Tikoo, Programme Coordinator for the Disabilities Divison of Saburi (formerly Balloons), a garment export house run by entrenenur Rashmi Paliwal.

Leading by example

“One day in 1987, a disabled beggar came to Rashmi”, beings Nitasha. “She said, ‘I won’t give you alms, but if you come to my factory I will give you a job.” She used to say it to all beggars, but no one ever turned up. This one did.”

He was both mentally and physically challenged, and Rashmi, to figure out what he could do, gave him buttons to sort and thread bundles to untangle. Keeping him in her office for 15 days, she made sure that when she sent him to the factory floor, her managers would treat him with the same respect. Unfortunately, this man was waylaid and murdered on the salary day, but the event generated so much publicity, says Nitasha, that The Spastics Society of India approached Rashmi to train their members. When she had 16 disabled employees in a workforce of 350 and the Spastics Society recommended her for the Helen Keller Award, Rashmi felt so “embarrassed” at the state of affairs that made her small contribution and out, that she decided she had to do more. Thus, she began networking with institutes’ for the disabled,as well as fellow garments exporters. Today she has a circle of over 30 exporters, systemized training and a full-fledged Disabilities Division in her company.

Currently working on a project with lady Irwin College to train visually impaired girls in using the button and buttonhole machines, adapted with help from IIT and NIFT, Rashmi says, “If it is successful, think how many people will get jobs.”

Leading through inclusion

Meanwhile, slated for October 12 and 13 in New Delhi is the Confederation of Indian Industry’s Leadership Summit, with the theme “winning through inclusion: India leading the way.”

The climate seems to be improving. But ‘inclusion’ includes a lot. Arun Maira, Chairman, Boston Consultancy Group, who is also Chairman of the summit this year, notes, that the economically and the socially disadvantage, and those in far-flung areas are the other aspects of inclusion studies. At least one speaker, from IBM, has specifically mentioned his intention to take into account the disability aspect too. Mentioning that all our overlap at times, Maira clarifies one should not get “the impression that one is forgetting the other aspects of inclusion).

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