Employ the Differently Abled

Dr. Ajay Kumar, Secretary (IT), Government of Kerala, called for increasing the employability of the differentially-abled as well as employment, in both high-tech sectors such IT and in other sectors in the economy. He was speaking at the Session on “Diversity in Workforce: Employing the Differently Abled”, organized by the Group of Technopark Companies (GTECH) at Technopark today. Dr. Ajay Kumar also explained the background of the InSight project designd and implemened by the Kerala State IT Mission and SPACE, which has successfully developed and is in the process of disseminating throughout the state an Open Source software stack that enabled visually impaired to use computers. He congratulated GTECH for highlighting this important topic among the Technopark community and Kerala's society.

There are about 70 million disabled people in the country. According to a study by NCPEDP top 100 companies, only 0.4% of their workforce comprised of People with Disabilities. If equipped with the right skills, the differentially abled can be of significant value to economy of the country.
GTECH, as a group representing Technopark companies, took the initiative of organizing this session with the objective of bringing together Corporates, NGOs, the Government and the media on a common platform to discuss issues associated with the employability of differently abled, especially within the IT sector.
Dr. Usha Titus, Secretary, Social Welfare Department, who delivered a special address on the occasion, said that there is vast pool of untapped differentially-abled human resources in the country and in Kerala, and that enabling even a part of these resources would be beneficial to the entire society.

The session also stressed on the need for the IT Industry to work closely with NGO’s and the Government in addressing the issue of employability of the differently Abled. The session showcased success stories of companies like Reuters, IBM, Infosys, Mphasis BFL etc in successfully employing the differently Abled and creating a diversity in their respective workforces.

Other speakers at the session included Ms.Rama Chari, Director, Diversity and Equal Opportunity; Mr. Binu Sankar, CEO, Group of Technopark Companies , Mr. Sebi Chacko, Head-HR (South Asia), Thomson Reuters; Mr. G Vijayaraghavan, ex-CEO, Technopark; Mr. Arun Ramachandran, Project Co-ordinator, Insight Project; Mr. S. Ashok Kumar, Project Manager, Leonard Cheshire International; Mr. Rakesh Gupta, COO, Allianz Cornhill India; and Mr. Amarnath Raja, CEO, InApp Information Technologies.