In India, there are millions of physically challenged people who belong to economically weaker sections. Rather than being a burden, they too wish to be the bread-earners for the family, says BS Nagesh, Founder – TRRAIN and Vice Chairman- Shoppers Stop. Retailers in India should introduce some programmes to enhance their employability and self-sufficiency so that they can also be suitably employed.
G Radhamma has a smile that instantly lights up the room. Vivacious and friendly, she is the life of the workplace. Beneath this somewhat impish exterior, she is also a woman of substance. Employed with McDonald’s and earning more than each of the four men in her family, Radhamma is the very embodiment of the independent urban Indian woman. Far from the social stereotype of a physically disabled individual, wouldn’t you think?
While she does, in fact, suffer from 45 percent orthopaedic disability in her left leg, she is anything but average. Radhamma belonged to an impoverished family in the Mehboob Nagar district of Andhra Pradesh. Both her parents are daily wage labourers and her four brothers eventually followed them into a life of hard labour. Despite their limited means and the remote likelihood of her ever being able to find work, her parents sent her to school and saw her through to the 12th standard. Radhamma grew up conscious of being a burden on her family, although this was never openly expressed before her. But she was not about to let this “misfortune” deprive her life of meaning.
Radhamma’s heart-warming story is just one among many in the Indian retail milieu. Last year when we set out to put our “Project Shining Star” into action, it was with the intention of positively impacting at least some of the 70 million people with disabilities (PwDs) in India. We were clear we did not want to hand out a dole – the intention was categorically to enhance their employability and self-sufficiency. In the Hyderabad-based organisation Youth for Jobs, we found a credible partner who shared our vision and was, in fact, successfully putting it into practice.
The last missing piece of the puzzle was identifying suitable employment avenues for the newly equipped candidates. Modern retail at that point employed close to 6 lakh people nationwide – a number growing rapidly. But it has always had its own set of issues; high attrition due to the abundance of lateral opportunities was just one of them. We were confident that our candidates, who truly appreciated the value of these opportunities, would repay employers with their diligence and loyalty. The eagerness with which retail corporates supported our efforts in mapping possible roles for PwDs in retail vindicated this belief. Thus evolved our model of identifying deserving candidates, putting them through a 90-day residential skill-development programme, and finally placing them in the participating organisations.
In August 2011, Radhamma and 21 others responded positively to our recruitment drive. Her parents had been reluctant to allow her to travel unaccompanied to Hyderabad for the programme, but she managed to persuade them eventually. Over the next 90 days, she and her eager batchmates acquired the skills they needed to be at par with the other youth employed in retail: basic English, industry knowledge, sales skills, soft skills, and using computers. They had sessions on motivation and confidence building where they realised their performance and contribution to the organisation would be as good as, if not better than, that of the “regular” retail employees. On completion of the classroom sessions, they were introduced to the real-life work environment through internship at retail brands like HyperCity, Crossword, and Reliance Digital.
One morning soon after this, Radhamma’s family huddled anxiously around an STD booth in their village as her mother received a phone call from Hyderabad. They could barely contain their joy when Radhamma’s excited voice informed them that she held in her hands a letter from McDonald’s offering her a monthly starting salary of Rs 5,200. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to assert that this was life-altering for a family whose combined income hitherto had been about Rs 8,000 per month!
Since then, Radhamma and her 21 fellow aspirants have settled into their jobs at Subway, HyperCity, Uppada Sarees, and Srinath Jewellers, to name a few. With salaries ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,500 per month, they are brimming with confidence and hopes for a bright future. Their employers are delighted with their work and loyalty, which is a godsend in an industry struggling to contain attrition. Their astonishing transformation and success have emboldened us to scale up our efforts. Both industry and individual donors have stepped forward with enthusiasm to support us in our endeavour to impact more than 400 people this year.
Over an informal chat, I asked Radhamma how she feels about her new life. She shoots back instantly with her thousand-watt smile: “From being a burden to being the one family member they know they can lean on … how do you think that would feel?”
*This article was originally published in June 2012 issue of Images Retail.
