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Ambar Singh Roy

A BPO company, along with the Ramakrishna Mission, will train visually-impaired students in medical transcription.

IT is an anitiative to open a new window of opportunity for the visually-impaired.

Transtek, a Kolkata-based business process outsourcing (BPO) company that focuses on the healthcare sector, has tied up with the Ramakrishna Mission, Narendrapur, to provide training in medical transcription to students of the Blind Boys Academy, Ramakrishna Mission, Narendrapur.

To begin with, six students will be trained for six months, five hours a day. Transtek will provide the study materials, software and medical transcription facility required to run the programme. The first batch of students will be trained free of cost at the Narendrapur campus.

Says Sudarshan Bagri, Managing Director, Transtek: "In the last five years, we have trained and placed over 2,000 of our medical transcription students. In the course of our journey, werealised that it would be possible to provide visually-impaired people professional training in medical transcription.

That is because medical transcription is the only industry where hearing is more important than seeing. We felt the visually-impaired need job-oriented training and we are proud to be associated with Ramakrishna Mission, Narendrapur, for the purpose."

Transtek has adopted the voice-prompted JAWS software for the training module.

Inputs were also obtained from Mohana Giri, a visually-impaired medical transcriptionist based in Coimbatore. The initial batch of six students has been selected on the criteria of good knowledge of English and computer skills. "We have just started the course and the response from the students' side has been very focused and encouraging. Following successful completion of the course, we shall absorb them in our own organisation", says Bagri.

According to Sunil Baran Patnaik, Principal of the Blind Boys Academy, Ramakrishna Mission, Narendrapur, this is perhaps the first time in the country that a job-oriented course in the IT sector is being offered to the visually-impaired in a structured manner.

"It will go a long way in facilitating the economic rehabilitation of the visually-impaired. Over the years, we have had various vocational training courses for the visually-impaired but this is one course that has the potential to open up new avenues." Bagri says, "At present, there are around 50,000 people engaged in the medical transcription industry in the country. According to a Nasscom-McKinsey study, the industry will engage 1.6 lakh people by 2008.

The demand-supply ratio is in favour of the employee. Hence, the scope for employment is phenomenal.

Replication of this model will benefit a greater number of visually-impaired. In fact, several other organisations that work with the visually-impaired have approached us to run the course at their premises."

For Transtek, the project is part of its corporate social responsibility, aimed at "adding value to the lives of the visually-impaired."

Says Dr G.D. Gautama, Principal Secretary in West Bengal's Department of Information Technology: "We must use IT to empower the less-advantaged groups.

This course is unique in the sense that it will provide those who are visually-impaired but have English-speaking skills to earn salaries on a par with what is earned by their more-endowed counterparts.

The true value of such a course can be derived only when there is exponential replication of it across the country."

That, ideally, should happen sooner than later.

Picture by V. Ganesan

ambar_singhroy@rediffmail.com

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