YOUTH
India’s growing ‘under-25’ population, including young people with disabilities , aspire for better jobs and higher incomes. Therefore, there is an urgency to educate and skill our youth and optimise them to match up to the requirements of the industry. DRF attempts to deliver high quality skilling at scale for marginalised youth apart from empowering young women to study science.
ABOUT GROW PwD
(FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITY)
GROW PwD program focuses on youth with orthopedic disability and speech/ hearing impairment and provides them with skills to help them get employment. Our skilling hubs are enabling centres of learning with accessible infrastructure and trained professionals, which include sign-language experts to coach these young people on core employability skills.
KEY ISSUES
Low inclusion
of PwD in the workforce, with only 1% out of 5 million youth with disability currently employed.
Due to poor policy implementation, despite the Government mandate of 3%, the current employment of PwD is
less than 1%
OUR SOLUTION
Our 60-day program focuses on ‘core employability’ skills and preps PwD youth to face job interviews with confidence. GROW’s
emphasis is on affordable high-quality training and most centres have residential facilities. Our highly competent and
PwD certified staff ensure that these young students get placements in an inclusive workspace, which is possible because of
the active sensitization drive conducted by the PwD team in partnership with Skill Council for Persons with Disability
(SCPwD) and other leaders in the industry.
STORIES OF CHANGE
It’s a routine busy day at the Printographics office on Bommanahalli at Bangalore. The bustle and the noise of traffic outside are matched by the hum of several machines and photocopies whooshing at high speed. Totally unmindful of the busyness around, is a serene looking young boy, focusing on a sheet of paper with zen like concentration.
Rajashekar Murthy is a hearing impaired young man who has been working here for more than a year. He is extremely popular with his colleagues and supervisor. As he walks in he makes several pit-stops for cheerful hi-fis with colleagues who clearly share camaraderie with him. Obviously communication is not an issue despite Rajashekar being restricted to his sign language.
Says Printo’s Assistant HR manager Shwetha, “Rajashekar is a hardworking and cheerful person and in terms of productivity, he can match the best here. I am truly proud of him for we know we can count on him”.
Rajashekar too is thrilled to be working here. “I love the place,” he signs with his hands as our interpreter translates for us. “I am loved here more than my family.”
