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Raja Simhan T.E.

KARUNAKAR A. is an M. Tech from IIT Chennai. He is now a Senior Project Leader at Laser Soft Infosystems Ltd, a Chennai-based software firm. But the path to employment wasn't easy for him, even with IIT backing, because he was physically-challenged. He spent two years after his graduation at the IIT Chennai campus, but recruiters did not greet him with favourable news.

When The Hindu reported this discrimination in its columns, B. Suresh Kamath, chairman and managing director at LaserSoft, a reader, immediately contacted Karunakar with a job offer. Laser Soft has been employing physically-challenged people for the last 10 years and this has helped both the company and the disabled employees. "Employing such people helps us to meet our social obligations partially," says Kamath.

Currently close to 10 per cent of Laser's total manpower strength of 500 is physically-challenged and five more people are to join shortly after completing formal training, he says.

Hiring physically-challenged people is a key parameter for success as their commitment levels and contribution are of the highest order. The general problem of attrition simply does not exist in this category provided the company does not exploit them, provides equal opportunities, and proper emoluments are paid, he says.

Laser Soft employs people from a wide spectrum of qualification/background. If they (physically challenged) come with engineering/computer science qualifications, they are employed directly. On the other hand, if they come from other backgrounds such as B.Com, B.Sc, the company provides six months' training and then employs them, he says.

According to Kamath, the IT fraternity is not doing enough to employ such people.

Indian IT companies have not seriously considered employing physically-challenged people and hence they have not analysed the pros and cons of employing them. As this job involves very little physical exertion, it is ideally suited for people who can cope better with demands on their intellect than on their physique, he says.

raja@thehindu.co.in

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