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IT & BUSINESSJOURNALISM

18th ANNUAL POLESTAR AWARDS

18th Annual PoleStar AwardsThe PoleStar Awards recognizes outstanding talent among Indian media

professionals and celebrates stupendous contributions from media citizenswho have acted as catalysts in disseminating quality information to the world.

The PoleStar Foundation conceptualized the PoleStar Award way back in 1998 to mark excellence in IT and Business Journalism.

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BEST FEATURE IN IT JOURNALISM

Rajat Ubhaykar

Rajat Ubhaykar is a Senior Correspondent with Outlook Business, one of India’s premier business magazines. He's worked as a journalist for over 2 years now and has covered diverse sectors such as banking, financial inclusion, stock markets, social enterprises, SMEs, logistics, technology start-ups and renewable energy. He also undertook a three-month long journey hitchhiking with truck drivers all across India and wrote a six-part series for Outlook Business about the highway economy.

Before joining Outlook Business, he worked as a business analytics associate with ZS Associates, a multinational management consultancy firm. He has a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur and a Post Graduate Diploma in Journalism from Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. He is also an omnivorous reader and finishes one book per week religiously. His interests span a wide variety of subjects including writing, literature, history, business, travel, films, music, art, geopolitics, science, and chess.

Rajat Ubhaykar won the PoleStar Award for his article,‘The Emerging World Of 3D Printing’, which appeared in Outlook Business

www.polestar-foundation.org

Rajat Ubhaykar

off as finished products. It turns out that the company is quite wary of intellectual property violations and is reluctant to allow us to photograph the premises as we wish.

In another chamber, artisans with micro-motor powered polishers are polishing jewellery made by pouring molten metal into 3D printed wax-like resin moulds. One of the workers is from Madhubani, Bihar, and has been working as an artisan since the last eight years.

he city of Mumbai hides in its crevices little secrets that wouldn’t be apparent to the naked eye of a passerby. Who

Contrary to stereotypical perceptions of jewellers being an Twould have thought that the dreary new passport office in antiquated lot, the industry has been one of the earliest adopters the industrial hub of Marol, in Andheri, houses a tastefully of 3D printing technology. According to Rao, most young sons of designed modernistic office? We are standing in Imaginarium, family jewellers are made to learn computer-aided design (CAD) the ‘self-proclaimed evangelists of 3D printing in India’, as their and Tanishq, the Tata-owned jewellery major, started investing technical and operations head, Guruprasad Rao, puts it. The in the technology in the mid-2000s.office decor is heavily influenced by cubism: sharp angular

designs in tune with their futuristic line of work and imparting More than half of Imaginarium’s revenue is earned from the the illusion that all office furniture and accessories have been jewellery industry, the rest is derived from ‘engineering’, an 3D printed en masse.umbrella term for around 40 different verticals that the company has a reasonable presence in. On the application front, 30% Imaginarium is owned by H Dipak, a company which claims to revenues are from rapid prototyping and 70% from end-use be the world’s largest manufacturer and distributor of princess parts such as jewellery and automobile parts such as headlights cut diamonds. Imaginarium counts among its press-friendly and tail lights.products the Filmfare trophy — of which it delivered 42 copies

costing ?12,000 each, after making desired design Rao, previously a professor of design, calls the company modifications in the form of a lotus pedestal — as well as the ‘design-enablers’, meaning they help execute the design that Mumbai Press Club Red Ink Award for journalists.jewellers bring to them, using their team of CAD designers. According to him, a new grammar in design is coming up and When we step into their swanky workshop, we are told they own the ‘new grammar is no grammar’. Ankit Mehta, owner of 17 3D printers spanning all categories that can print in 24 Imaginarium, while refusing to divulge numbers, says, materials along with a 3D scanner, indeed making it a ‘one-stop “Revenue has tripled in the last five years and the company is shop’. As we walk down the corridor, to our left is a temperature- profitable.” The plant runs at a capacity of 60-70%, according to and light-controlled chamber housing the relatively noiseless Rao.3D printers, refrigerator-like machines with a transparent front-

panel through which we see layer being deposited upon layer, Imaginarium isn’t the only one to adopt this technology and creating the desired object. provide it as a service. Kolkata-based Marco Polo was one of the first service bureaus to set up shop. “We started in 1999. Our All the machines are remotely controlled by the technical staff first customers were appliance makers such as LG and seated on our right. The 200-strong staff and the machines are Whirlpool, who used our machines for the development of largely segregated from each other. An army of 10-15 workers refrigerators and washing machines.armed with sandpaper is furiously scrubbing 3D printed mobile

phone covers, making them neatly uniform and ready to be sold

The Emerging World Of 3D Printing

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3D printing ecosystem is quietly taking shape in India withcorporates leveraging the technology

Talking shop: An array of 3D printers at Imaginarium,a Mumbai-based service bureau catering to a variety of industries

A new grammar in design is coming

up, and the new grammar is no

grammar — Guruprasad Rao, Head,

Technology and Operations,

Imaginarium

At that point of time, even new product development was at a nascent stage in India. When the product development business which will most likely shake up the industry and propel the picked up, automobile companies started using it and our auto industry into commercial viability, given HP’s size and clout. business grew quite a bit in 2010-2012. Right now, it’s mostly Presently, given the prohibitive pricing of several of these auto and auto ancillaries who’re our clients,” says Ankit Kumar, patented 3D printers, only corporations have been able to avail owner and founder of Marco Polo. this technology, primarily in the aerospace, automotive, medical

devices and jewellery industries.Marco Polo has four 3D printers spanning all dominant technologies, SLA, SLS and FDM, and employs around 60-65 The stock prices of 3D printing firms such as 3D Systems and people. In addition, Marco Polo has subtractive technologies Stratasys have fallen in the last few months, with Stratasys such as computer numerical control (CNC) machines and posting a loss for the first time in the last 10 years in 2013. vacuum casting. Pricing is usually done on an ad-hoc basis. “We However, technology analysts remain upbeat about the take into account the material costs, manpower costs, the load industry’s prospects. Gartner, in a report by analyst Janessa factor of the machine, the overhead costs such as rent and Rivera, places 3D printing in the top 10 strategic technology power, and arrive at a number. Material costs account for 25- trends for 2015, noting, “3D printing will reach a tipping point 30% of the total cost,” says Mehta. over the next three years as the market for relatively low-cost

3D printing devices continues to grow rapidly and industrial use Imaginarium has a pricing team of five people that designs expands significantly. New industrial, biomedical and consumer algorithms to determine the cost of 3D printing a part, which applications will continue to demonstrate that 3D printing is a varies from product to product. Mehta admits that in the viable and cost-effective means to reduce costs through absence of market forces, quotes can vary wildly, but customers improved designs, streamlined prototyping and short-run eventually gravitate towards reliable service providers.manufacturing.”

To the fore According to Gartner’s latest forecast, “Worldwide shipments of 3D printers will reach 217,350 units in 2015, up from 108,151 in The recent buzz around 3D printing doesn’t mean the 2014. 3D printer shipments will more than double every year technology is recent. In fact, in technology terms, it’s quite a between 2015 and 2018, by which time worldwide shipments dinosaur, having been around since 1986 when Chuck Hull, are forecast to reach more than 2.3 million.” Pete Basiliere, founder of 3D Systems, patented his stereolithography (SLA) Research Vice President at Gartner, says in a press release, “As technology. Yes, that is how long it takes for a wishful idea to turn radical as the forecast numbers may seem, bear in mind that into an everyday reality. In fact, it wasn’t even called 3D printing even the 2.3 million shipments that we forecast will be sold in then.2018 are a small fraction of the total potential market of

Nomenclature has evolved over the years from rapid consumers, businesses and government organisations prototyping to 3D printing to the now-popular term of additive worldwide.”manufacturing (AM). Over the years, the technology, too, has

Corporate embraceevolved and various other multinationals came up with patented proprietary technology for 3D printing: Stratasys patented its

Industry, where time means money, has been nimble in fused deposition modelling (FDM) technology and EOS patented adopting this potentially disruptive technology and has been its selective laser sintering (SLS) technology. All these reaping benefits. Companies in the aerospace and automobile technologies have their own optimal application.sectors are using it to streamline prototyping process while jewellery and medical device companies are using it for direct Meanwhile, Hewlett Packard (HP) has recently announced plans manufacturing of final products (see: Making its mark). to introduce its own commercial 3D printer in 2016, something

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Shine on: An artisan polishes jewellery madeusing 3D printed resin moulds

Purohit makes the observation that time is extremely valuable in the field of new product development, so integrating 3D printing into their prototyping process can lend companies a crucial competitive edge. “In the real world, if you launch a car late by six months, you are making a notional loss of crores. We have to launch new products as early as possible otherwise the opportunity is lost. Your design becomes obsolete,” he says.

For most engineers, the first part they make using a 3D printer Tata Motors is currently using 3D printing to manufacture remains an experience of a lifetime. For Ajay Purohit, his first cosmetic trim parts such as dashboards, as well as some major experience with a 3D printer at Tata Motors, while memorable, underhood (engine) parts, especially those which require a lot of certainly wasn’t auspicious. “I will never forget that first job. It was optimisation and multiple iterations before they get it right.a piece of a car’s bumper, measuring around 50cm x 50 cm. We

“For instance, the geometry of the intake manifold which made the part and excitedly called all our top bosses to see it.supplies fuel and air mixture to the cylinders is critical in

By mistake, the piece, which was made of a brittle resin, slipped optimising the performance of the engine. We require multiple from the person’s hand and shattered into fine pieces in front of iterations to optimise this geometry,” says Purohit.everybody. It came very much as a shock to us after looking at

At present, Tata Motors possesses four direct 3D printing the part resting in the machine for three-four days,” he says. machines, two SLA machines, one SLS machine and one low That was around 10 years ago — the situation today is very cost 3D printer. In 2009, the company acquired a machine that different.enabled 3D printing of large parts. This machine can make big

Tata Motors, one of India’s largest automobile companies which parts such as a car dashboard in one piece. “What happens is manufactures both cars and heavy vehicles, bought its first that if you build a part in multiple pieces, a lot of time is wasted in machine in 2003. Purohit, Technical Chief, Rapid Prototype and joining them. Also, joining parts defeats the purpose of Craftsmanship Tools, says, “3D printing has radically changed automation since manual error creeps in,” says Purohit. the way we build a prototype. The prototyping process time has

Currently, Tata Motors has no plans to use 3D printing for direct reduced from two months to two days. We are able to launch a manufacturing since it is not cost-efficient to use the technology car much faster in the market and we are able to come up with for mass production. “Also, across the world, all parts in vehicles faster prototypes of better quality.” needs homologation from regulatory agencies such as the

Making its mark Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI). At present, 3D printing materials and processes are not standardised and have Automotive, aerospace and medical industries drive the bulk of to go through rigorous testing to be used on production cars. innovation in 3D printingAlso, performance over a long duration and reliability is still not established for most of the 3D printed material.

With this are issues of high cost of materials, longer manufacturing times for mass production and standardisation and reliability conformance. ARAI needs to validate the materials used and additive manufacturing of final vehicle parts is not possible right now,” says Purohit. However, Tata Motors is planning to invest in direct metal rapid prototyping and multi-material printers in the future to make good quality parts.

On the assembly line

Another company to bite into the 3D-printing pie is the General Electric that has invested extensively in this technology. According to a Deloitte report on 3D printing, “GE plans to mass-produce 25,000 LEAP engine nozzles [the first jet engine designed using 19 3D-printed fuel nozzles that are five times more durable and 25% lighter than previous models] with additive manufacturing with already $22 billion in

Earlier, Purohit says that they would sometimes launch products commitments.”in the market knowing there were improvements that could have been made in the design. Now there’s no scope for such regret. 3D printing enables them to make design improvements in the software model so the management, too, can see a prototype model before giving it to the vendor for mass manufacturing. “Every designer wants to optimise his design in terms of cost, quality and performance before launching it in the market. 3D printing or additive manufacturing enables us to do just that,” says Purohit.

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3D printing enables us to optimise

cost, quality and performance before

the launch — Ajay Purohit, Technical

Chief, Rapid Prototyping, Tata Motors

3D printing makes it possible to build

a part with rigid and soft materials on

either end — Sanjay Anikhindi, Head,

3D Printing Lab, GE India

Source: Deloitte report on additive manufacturing, October 2014

GE’s multidisciplinary R&D centre based in Bengaluru, acquired number of steps required to make a part. “But it won’t be a direct its first 3D printers around two years ago. At present, it has replacement for CNC. That’s not where the disruption is going to around six 3D printers divided between two technologies: FDM come,” he says. Anikhindi thinks 3D printing could dramatically which enables them to build parts of a certain quality, shape and change the assembly line, the bedrock of efficient speed, and polyjet, which allows them to build soft and manufacturing. “In a traditional manufacturing setup, you need transparent parts. a whole set of machines to make a part conventionally: milling

machine, finishing machine etc. To a large extent, 3D printing Verticals such as power and water, aviation and oil and gas have reduces it by several steps,” he says.large programmes dedicated to making certain parts using the 3D printing process. “We have a variety of plastic printers which “A factory floor in the future is definitely going to look very cater to the needs of designers. We also have a metal printer different. The manufacturing and assembly line will be shrunk which is undergoing installation. Within the next two months, it since 3D printing will allow you to do distributed manufacturing will be running,” says Sanjay Anikhindi, Head of the 3D Printing Lab. with smaller manufacturing units spread over different

locations,” says Anikhindi. Another change is that one machine Like at Tata Motors, 3D printing is changing the way will allow you to make parts with differing geometries, since manufacturing and prototyping is done at GE. “3D printing is custom designs are possible with 3D printing.helping us at a very early stage of design. Earlier, we had to make various drawings, explain it to the manufacturer to make it However, Anikhindi is careful to specify the technology’s on conventional machines. Now, the CAD model is directly used limitations. “At present, CNC is used for precision machining of to 3D print a part. It enables us to make parts of good quality with larger components that require significant material removal. It faster turnaround times, and validate our designs quickly,” says is unlikely that 3D printing will replace those parts that are large Anikhindi. and material-intense, such as large castings or fabricated parts.

Also, it is not competitive in terms of time or cost for producing For instance, design engineers can now 3D print complex parts high-volume parts, which are made using special-purpose used in turbines which are difficult to visualise on a 2D machines. It will be more beneficial for intricate parts with computer screen. Turnaround times in fabrication of parts have demanding material properties,” he says.also reduced drastically. “What used to take a month now takes around a week. It allows us to do more design iterations, faster,” Anikhindi says an excellent part that showcases the potential of says Anikhindi. 3D printing is the LEAP jet engine fuel nozzle. “This has intricate

and very complex parts made by 3D printing technology. This part is representative of what 3D printing enables us to do. It has multiple components made into one single part with demanding material properties,” he says.

Another area where 3D printing is helping GE is in making parts that are not possible to make using traditional manufacturing techniques. Typically, parts that have totally enclosed flow paths within the structure need an elaborate multi-step manufacturing process. There are limitations on internal Design parameters are extremely important for aerospace “features” in the air-flow paths. These parts can be easily made companies such as GE, affirms Sridhar Balaram, Managing by 3D printing with very few limitations on the geometry. “We Director of Intech DMLS, a 3D metal-printing solution provider. are looking at a lot of components across various verticals for His company, headquartered in Bengaluru, focuses not only on 3D printing, but they are still in the evaluation stage. It will take printing metal parts but also provides weight-reduction us some time before we put these parts for demanding solutions without compromising on the structural strength. In applications because we will need to do their testing and the aerospace sector, reduction in weight of components means qualification,” says Anikhindi. saving thousands of dollars in fuel costs.

A big advantage with the advent of 3D printing is the new set of For metal printing, Intech DMLS had acquired know-how from materials and properties that are opened up for manufacturing. Germany-based EOS GmbH, a leader in the 3D metal-printing “For instance, an object that has rigid material on one side and space. Intech started less than two years ago and owns three soft material on the other. This is very difficult in a conventional EOS machines and other support systems and software. Intech process. It would be possible to significantly vary material says it provides a solution-based approach, whether it is properties within the part,” says Anikhindi. An air flow duct, for aerospace or tooling. In its first year, Intech has an order book example, can be made of rigid material and the end seal is made worth $1.5 million and is targeting $12 to $14 million in three of soft, flexible material which allows sealing with the mating years.part.

Balaram plans to focus on the overseas market and says that Anikhindi thinks there is immense potential in 3D printing to very soon, “some flying hardware for global OEMs will be made revolutionise manufacturing since it drastically reduces the in India.” Balaram is happy to break even in four years, but

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We have been able to shorten the

design cycle time by around 60%

using 3D printing — Vaman Kulkarni,

Director, Aero Mechanica, Honeywell

Upon standardisation, 3D printing will

trickle down from prototyping to

manufacturing — Sridhar Balaram,

Managing Director, Intech DMLS

predicts that in another 10 years, we will see a machine on According to Kulkarni, applications for direct manufacturing are every street. When asked about his optimism, he says, “The new higher in the aerospace industry because of smaller volumes technology has a lot of promise for every industry vertical and while it is not feasible in the transportation systems space since will slowly trickle down to manufacturing once standards are volumes are bigger. Typically, 3D printing is preferred for established. Also machines will become faster and the raw complex and intricate parts, “For a simple turning and milling material will get cheaper once the volumes grow. Soon, we operation, we can simply use conventional machinery,” he says.might just see a 3D industrial metal printer on almost every

Imprints in spacemachine shop floor.” Meanwhile, usage of 3D printing is not limited to private-sector In fact, the shift towards direct digital manufacturing is already companies. Government organisations such as Defence happening, with revenues from production of final parts now Research Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space accounting for 35% of the global 3D printing market in 2013 (the Research Organisation (ISRO) are also using 3D printing corresponding figure for 2012 is 29%) compared to 3% in 2003, technology to streamline manufacturing processes. “We are according to the Wohlers Report 2014 (see: Made to order).presently using 3D printing in making intricate satellite

Made to order components, especially wave guide components.

Functional parts account for a third of additive manufacturing applications

Earlier, we used subtractive methods like CNC which waste a lot of material and energy. 3D printing helps us build the part from bottom to top without much wastage,” says SS Gill, Scientist with ISRO. However, ISRO doesn’t own any 3D printers as of now. “Right now, we don’t own 3D printers but are using the services of Wipro in Bangalore. We don’t have any plans to buy 3D printers in the near future. First, we want to establish the technique to see whether it can generate spaceworthy hardware,” he says.

Enthusiasm regarding 3D printing is shared by the government as well. R Chidambaram, Chief Scientific Advisor to the Government of India, says, “If India is to become a knowledge economy, we have to develop experience in technology development and back it up with high-quality manufacturing. Additive manufacturing has to be a part of this picture,” he says.

However, when questioned about incentives for early adopters Honeywell is another company that has successfully leveraged of the technology in terms of low import duties and cheap credit, the technology. It has seven metal printers in the range of Chidambaram is dismissive. “Let’s talk about science here $800,000 to a million and 15 plastic printers in the range of please,” he says. “Also, many of my colleagues share the view $150,000-200,000. It started using 3D printers around 10 years that whatever Europeans can make, we can make at half the ago, beginning with thermoplastics.cost. That is our advantage.We can achieve world-class quality

Vaman Kulkarni, Director, Aero Mechanica, at Honeywell says, and reduce the cost, so we don’t need incentives. We can beat “We use this technology to make prototypes and do functional them on their terms,” he explains. Chidambaram cites the test validations. We have shortened the design cycle time by example of corrector magnets used in the Large Hadron Collider around 60% using this technology, from around six months to (LHC) supplied by India for $40 million, half the price in Europe. two-three months, since design iterations can be made quickly.

“The third Industrial Revolution has been led by the Internet and The applications are in aerospace, and in making turbochargers a broad term called ‘digital manufacturing’. AM is a part of digital for passenger and commercial vehicles.”manufacturing. But it will be more useful when you have low

Kulkarni says that they are in the process of undertaking some volumes since economies of scale don’t matter. Presently, AM is benchmark studies to find the cost of direct manufacturing also used to make complicated components or those that are no using 3D printers. “Right now, we’re only using it in prototyping, longer commercially available. One can simply 3D scan the around a year from now we’ll be using it in the production of object and recreate it faithfully,” he says. intricate parts, saving 30-50%. However, we need to establish consistency and repeatability of 3D printing in order to convince authorities,” he says.

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Source: Deloitte report on additive manufacturing, October 2014

3D printing allows us to build intricate

satellite parts with less material

wastage — SS Gill, Scientist, ISRO

Expensive hobby

Apart from their industrial use, 3D printers have also attracted those who couldn’t resist the temptation of this new super-toy, without any commercial interests. Parampreet Chadha, a fresh-faced twenty-something in faded jeans, just can’t get over what his newly acquired tech-toy can execute; his excitement palpable in the slightly reverential manner with which he

To enable research collaboration, Chidambaram says we have handles the self-assembled looping mass of tangled wires and the National Knowledge Network (NKN), which is a high-speed circuit boards in his haphazardly arranged bedroom.low-latency network run by the National Informatics Centre and

With this rickety machine, Chadha has the power to create set up by the government at a cost of $1 billion. “NKN objects that previously resided only in his imagination. He has connectivity can be used to create an overlaying grid which can already built a miniature aeroplane model, a pen stand, usable be devoted to AM research. For instance, if institutions across paper clips, and a beverage coaster that has since found a place geographies are developing something in collaboration, this can on his glass dining table. All of this from a pinkish thermoplastic be used and since it is a low-latency network the information is filament called acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), which is shared immediately. We have already connected used as the input material in creating objects, and is incidentally supercomputers and databases. Institutions can now jointly run the same material which is used to make Lego bricks. The a program on a supercomputer which is located in a third technology functions by ‘squirting molten plastic’ layer upon location.There already exist grids for topics such as brain layer, thereby creating complex three-dimensional models. research and climate science. We will create a grid for AM, but

it’ll be a smaller grid,” The big advantage is that this comes at no “It was a viral video which showcased a wrench being 3D additional cost. “The government has already invested a lot in printed that got me excited about the technology. I eventually this technology. It is the job of the government to provide bought a cheap home 3D printer for around ?50,000,” says connectivity. Content is the job of the scientists. I provide you the Chadha. He now designs 3D-printable models himself and also freeway, you drive the car,” he says.downloads designs from Thingiverse, a flourishing online open-source design community that is an indispensable resource for Meanwhile, early adopters of the technology complain about any home 3D printer owner. “Thingiverse has some really cool government apathy towards the technology in terms of tax designs. If you want to 3D print a tree, you can specify how many incentives and reduced import duties. India levies Most branches you want and how many leaves on every branch. It is Favoured Nation (MFN) duty rates of 7.5% compared to a global quite an incredible resource,” says an animated Chadha.average of 2.8%, along with other additional taxes and duties.

The Spanish, British and Korean governments even provide This is the world of consumer 3D printing: a nascent revolution funds to companies for developing 3D printing technology in which holds the potential to democratise manufacturing, their respective countries, according to reports. relocating it from cavernous factory floors to one’s own home in much the same way as the internet relocated information from “There is no subsidy given by the government or advantage stuffy libraries to portable mobile devices. But a word of caution offered for upgradation of technology. It is not a priority sector is essential. Home-factories on every street are still a faraway for our government unlike in other developed countries. We reality. As usual, cost-efficiency is a bummer and there are borrow at the same commercial rates, pay the same customs issues regarding the reliability and repeatability of products duty, pay the same taxes as anyone else would pay because of created using cheap desktop 3D printers.which the cost is quite prohibitive,” says Dinesh Jain, a

Mumbai-based dentist who uses 3D printing and scanning to The world of 3D printing may have come a long way, but the provide high-end dental prosthetics services. He owns 20 3D industry’s conundrum is much like Balaram’s situation: patents scanners spread around the country from where patients send and prohibitive costs make a capital-intensive business in their digital dental imprints.unremunerative while the future calls out like a siren on the rocks, promising it a place in the sun. Presently in India, the These imprints are then 3D printed in Mumbai and shipped industry’s fortunes are tied to new product development in the back. He owns one 3D metal printer. Jain has invested around country. Hence, for the 3D printing industry to thrive, just Make ?20-25 crore in the equipment, starting in 2010, and expects to in India won’t suffice, there will have to be Create in India. Until recover his investment in ten years. Jain says the dental space then, enthusiasts like Chadha will have to satisfy themselves has seen a pick-up in adoption in the last five to six years, but with ersatz creations. prices of such services are 20-25% higher than that of

traditional dentists. In fact, a majority of entrepreneurs using 3D printing technology are yet to recover their investments, except long-established companies which are often reluctant to disclose margins.

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3D printing is more useful with low

volumes since economies of scale

don't matter — R Chidambaram, Chief

Scientific Advisor, Government of India

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BEST FEATURE INBUSINESS JOURNALISM

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Sarika Malhotra

Sarika Malhotra is Associate Editor at Business Today, India Today Group. At Business Today, she has been covering development economics for more than four years. Her stories involve ground reportage and investigations from some of the remotest and Naxal affected areas of the country.

Sarika is the 2014 winner of the first prize for Economic Journalism in Asia from the IE Business School, Spain and CAF Development Bank of Latin America. She has won the Special Jury Recognition from PoleStar Foundation in 2015, and Laadli Media and Advertising Award for Gender Sensitivity by Population First and UNFPA in 2015. Sarika also won the inaugural Aster Media Award for Social Impact in 2016.

Spanning over 10 years, Sarika began her career in journalism in 2005 with The Times of India and has worked with The Financial Express and Sakaal Times. She has a diverse experience of reporting on private equity, financial services, grassroots entrepreneurship, water and social economy. Sarika has a Doctorate in International Studies from the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. With a constant itch to venture into the lesser known, ground reportage is her calling. For ‘tricky’ stories, she enjoys capturing photographs too!

Sarika Malhotra won the PoleStar Award for her article,‘Invisible Hands’, which appeared in Business Today

Sarika Malhotra

the historical centre of Ghent, Belgium. Also visiting the area is a team of international buyers from Belgium who fund projects and NGOs to make sure that they are working towards buying ethically sourced stones - it implies good working practices in the mines and quarries, minimum safety standards and, above all, no child labour.

The sandstone importers from the region include leading companies from Europe that manufacture natural stone and landscaping products such as Beltrami, Brett, CED, DNS Stones, Hardscape, London Stone, Marshalls, Natural Paving and Pavestone, among others. Indeed, as per estimates, approximately 280,000 tonnes of Indian sandstone is shipped to the UK alone. At last count, there were at least 10 such active NGOs working on the 40-odd km belt.

n the 40 km Bundi-Bhilwara stretch of National Highway 76, it The reason for the concern of these companies is evident. Take the seems like business as usual till a man in a yellow T-shirt case of Banjara basti at Parana Village, in Bundi district. The shanty arrives on a motorbike at an eatery stall near Patiyal village, Otown, without a grid connection, has some 70-odd households, with Bundi district. On his instructions, a group of children, chiseling small 150 children in the age group of four to 10 years and some 50 in the sandstones on the side of the highway, scatter. Some sneak into 11 to 14 bracket. No child goes to school, but they all know how to the huts behind the rubble, while others grab a cola-bar at the stall. count and calculate. In fact, the basti has no school. The closest The children are immediately replaced by a handful of women who schools are in Dabi and Buddhpura - some five and seven carry on with the same work. Soon, an Innova stops near the stall kilometres away - or across the four-lane highway in Parana on the highway and an expat is taken around the site by a couple of village. Five minutes to 8 a.m. and the entire basti gets going. The men. The team spends around 10 minutes at the spot. The expat is elders proceed towards the mines, 16 to18 year olds easily make accompanied back to the vehicle and, after a brief discussion with

the men, is driven away. Within minutes of his leaving, the children emerge from the huts and resume their work.

There is a precision with which the entire sequence is staged, almost as if it is enacted on a regular basis. The expat is a journalist from Belgium. He is investigating whether ethically sourced sandstone from the region was used to rebuild two of the most strategic commercial landmarks - Korenmarkt and Emile Braun Square - in

Invisible Hands

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An invisible workforce is making in India for the world. An inside account of how child labour is conveniently kept under wraps in the country.

Business Journalism

Lost childhood: In Rajasthan, children make sandstone cobbles in the mining area and outside their homes. They are paid Rs. 2 for every piece

39% of India's population are children below 18. The country has the world's largest pool of children.

their way into the mines for loading, clearing and unloading work and the younger children head towards the yards where they make cobble stones. Children start working in these yards from age of eight years and learn on the job. They work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and are paid Rs. 2 per cobble stone by the quarry owners or

contractors. The basti calls it a day at 8 p.m., as most adults and per cent export industry without being registered anywhere as adolescents take to heavy drinking.workers and yet contribute to this growing economy," says

Indeed, as this example illustrates, child labour is still rampant in Sengupta.several sectors, particularly export-oriented industries. The

The business matrix is simple. A labour is paid Rs. 2 for every cobble Amendment Bill cleared by the Cabinet in May might not have stone. If the mine owner is getting the work done through a enough teeth to check child labour, as most work is done in homes or contractor, he only plays for his commission and labour cost. One home-based enterprises in disguise.tonne cobble stones usually have 200 to 300 pieces of stones

Take, for instance, sandstone quarries in Rajasthan. According to the (depending on the size of the stone). The exporter sources the Department of Mines and Geology, Udaipur, 70 per cent of India's stones from vendors, middlemen and quarry owners and sells it to sandstone production takes place in Rajasthan and in 2013/14 it a big international buyer for €2,000 for a container (about €6.5 to earned the state exchequer more than Rs. 138 crore through mine €9 per square metre). This is sold in the overseas market at €18 per leases and royalty. The industry employs 71,242 people, according square metre. Now, given the margins involved, most big mine and to official estimates but the actual number of workers are much quarry owners themselves have started exporting directly to the more. international companies. The cost benefit ratio of being in the

business is apparent.A thriving cobble stone economy in the region is being largely fuelled by engaging children who make cobbles and small blocks from Mining and quarrying contributes almost two per cent to the sandstone quarry waste. This waste is found in abundance in the country's GDP, and according to the 2011 Census 8.3 per cent of the region and is now bringing in substantial revenue to the quarry total workforce in this sector are children. However, the actual owners and cobble contractors. The quarry or mine owners either number of child labourers seldom gets reflected. Mining is a state sell the waste to contractors, middlemen or engage contractors subject while mine labour is a central subject. There is no system who get them processed at homes, which mostly involve children. to monitor the labour situation in mines and quarries. Sengupta These children do a good job of chiselling stones because of their explains that labour department officers are not just in charge of flexible hands. Since 2004, demand from Europe is growing for mining in a particular state. They also have the responsibility of cobble stones that are used to make pavements, driveways, labourers in all central government establishments in a state, such gardens and as decorative stones. as Railways, Post and Telegraph, among others. "Moreover, one

Labour Enforcement Officer (LEO) is in charge of four districts, Rana Sengupta, Managing Trustee and CEO, Mine Labour Protection which in Rajasthan would tantamount to about two lakh mine Campaign, explains the dynamics. "Cobbles are strategically made workers alone. Thus, it is humanly not possible to monitor the either on the side of the highway, or outside the mines, or increasingly situation of mine and quarry labourers given this labour and LEO outside the homes of the workers or at the stock yards. As a result, ratio." Interestingly, in the region, mine workers don't have any the cobble worker is outside the purview of any law, be it the Mines evidence of employment. This is despite the fact that they have Act or the Factories Act." Under the Mines Act, any labourer below been working for years in the mines, often under the same the age of 18 is not allowed near or in the mines since it is a contractor or mine owner. What, then, can be expected of the work hazardous activity. Often children as young as 14 make cobbles in done in household units or yards?the mining area. The Factories Act stipulates that basic basic

safety standards have to be ensured and are subject to inspection. While most mine owners say that no one under 18 is employed at the mines, there is possibly no way to gauge the exact age of labourers. "Hence, in this belt approximately 1.5 lakh labourers work in this 100 Age proofs, including birth certificates, are hardly available in this

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Cheap labour: Some 50,000 children are engaged in threadcutting of jeans in an East Delhi slum at 40 paisa per piece.This stage is the most important in the entire jean production chainbefore it can enter the market

segment, points out Kushal Singh, former Chairperson of the Finishing and value addition is the most important part in the value National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). "How chain. Even as outsourcing is a banned word in the exporter many employers or contractors are asking for age proofs is community, it's a given that it happens. A mid-sized Delhi exporter questionable. In cases where some proof is available there is no confirmed that at least 60 per cent units outsource the value authenticity of age mentioned on it." Quarry owners insist that they addition and finishing work through contractors or fabricators who give work to contractors and pay them on the basis of per piece, further outsource to sub-contractors. Another exporter pointed out and it is up to the contractor to get the work done. that, given the compliance norms, no work can go out of the

factory. It is almost impossible to prove that any work is outsourced PIECE BY PIECE from Tier-I and Tier-II units catering to big international buyers, he

added.Cut to Kailash Nagar in East Delhi where some 50,000 children are engaged in thread cutting of jeans. They get 40 paisa per piece for However, studies corroborate the fact that work is increasingly being thread cutting and 75 paisa for packing. These children don't work in outsourced at different stages. A report by the Society for Labour and any factory or production unit, neither do they go to fetch work. It Development, New Delhi in February 2013 notes that the number of arrives at their doorstep in lots. One lot usually has 25 pieces. The subcontractors or fabricators in the Kapashera-Dundehera region in thread cutter fits well within their fingers. No one knows where Haryana increased from less than five in 2000 to more than 90 by these pieces arrive from. They are counted, distributed, paid for 2012.and supervised by a lady in the colony who makes 10 paisa per

Prabhat Kumar, National Manager, Child Protection at international piece as handling charge. As no vehicle can enter the narrow lanes, NGO Save The Children, explains the dynamics. "Outsourced work is the agent brings the consignment out of the colony in a rickshaw always given either to a legal entity or an adult, but it reaches the and gets them loaded in a tempo. This agent is a part of an intricate children within the family. Any kind of hand work on the garment that supply chain network in Delhi which is fragmented, predominantly does not happen inside the factory has a high probability of export driven, specialising in apparel manufacturing and involving children." Kumar says profit in the RMG industry depends embellishment.

Consulting firm Technopak estimates that in 2012 the Indian readymade garment (RMG) industry produced nearly 13 per cent of the global output and was the sixth-largest exporter of garments in the world. Exports added up to $13.71 billion in 2011/12 and $14.94 billion in 2013/ 14. The biggest markets are the EU, US and UAE.

"In the past decade due to growing awareness and mandatory international compliances and certifications such as Social Accountability 8,000 Standard and the Worldwide Responsible Apparel Production Certification, child labour has declined in factories and production units," says a mid-sized Delhi exporter. However, it has substantially increased in home-based units (addas) and homes through piece work that is outsourced. Even as most processes in mid-sized export units are mechanised, finishing and value addition work is outsourced through contractors. These are essentially hand work, such as embroidery, embellishment, beading, stone pasting and thread cutting.

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Painstaking process : In readymade garments, the market cost of finished product depends on the quality of work at the lower rungs of the supply chain, such as hand embroidery and embellishments. The workers are paid Rs. 140 per adda

on keeping manufacturing costs low and he says. This money seldom comes into ensuring high volume of trade. "The longer circulation, remains untaxed and fuels a the supply chain, the lesser the payment at parallel black money economy. While there every step. Also, the market cost of the are no exact figures on the size of this black finished product depends on the quality of money economy, Satyarthi highlights the work happening at the lower rungs of the basic numbers. "On average there are 200 supply chain, such as hand embroidery and working days. India has six crore child being paid on piece rate." labourers who work at an average cost of

Rs. 15 per child per day, amounting toShanta Sinha, former Chairman of NCPCR,

Rs. 18,000 crore in a year. If these six crore says the piece rate is the worst form of child labourers are substituted with six crore exploitation, as the entire family, mostly

adult labourers, the dynamics will children, get involved in production. "Since completely change as an adult labourer pieces are produced or finished in home-based

would make at least Rs. 115 a day, which units, workers remain unorganised, never would amount to Rs. 1,38,000 crore. This come under the Factories Act, are not paid

difference of Rs. 1,20,000 crore is black minimum wages, nor provided healthy work money." If child labour is replaced by adults conditions or any social security. It makes the

and adults are paid the minimum daily wage, labour invisible, which can never make the then there will be no need for children to transition from piece to hour work." Whether

work. As adults will be well compensated, it is cobbles, readymade garments, bricks, their spending power will go up and it will bangles, handicraft, sports goods, gems and

give a fillip to the economy.jewellery, majority of these activities are measured on units of work executed and Bharti Sharma, former Chairperson of NCPCR, payments are made on piece rates. says manufacturers cut corners in a bid to

remain competitive. "The matter remains In fact, piece rates and child labour are tightlipped in the name of export promotion. If completely for the benefit of the employer than

you talk to export promotion bodies all they will for the poor family but it is always projected the say is that they have an advisory and there is other way, according to experts. Even for a

no child labour in the export value chain."semi-skilled or unskilled worker, an employer in Gurgaon would pay Rs. 5,500 as basic The Ministry of Labour maintains that child wage, in addition to 12 per cent provident labour is declining in India. The ministry fund, 1.75 per cent ESI (Employees' State asserts that enforcement of Child Labour Insurance Scheme), maternity leave of one (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 is done month without pay and a bonus once a year, by the state governments and the central plus overtime. No wonder, then, this is where government in their respective spheres. And the equations turn in favour of piece rate there is provision in the Act to appoint work. 'inspectors' by the 'appropriate government'

for the purpose of securing compliance. Then, there is the However, in New Delhi, the NCPCR, which

ecosystem of black was set up as a response to India being money and labour amongst the first few countries to ratify the

market dynamics of United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, has a adult labour. Kailash Satyarthi, Nobel different story to tell. It has no team - with six members not

Peace Prize winner and founder of the appointed and Child Development Secretary V.S. Oberoi holding child rights NGO Bachpan Bachao additional charge as NCPCR chairperson. Attempts to reach out to

Andolan, explains the matrix. "No the NCPCR remained futile. The commission did not respond to employer shows that they are employing repeated meeting requests and questionnaires.

children. All employers in their books show that they are paying the required minimum wages to adults. Most of this money becomes SHADES OF GREYblack money. Manufacturers calculate their expenses in such a

Observers feel that the current law, Child Labour (Prohibition and way that 30 to 60 per cent is shown as labour cost in overall Regulation) Act, 1986, which prohibits the engagement of children in production cost, and most of this money becomes black money," certain types of occupations and regulates the conditions of work in others, is outdated and should keep up with the times. The Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2012 was cleared by the Cabinet on May 13. The biggest grey area with respect to the amendment is that a child, after school hours, can help his family in fields, home-based work or forest gathering.

Majority of children fall under this category. Consider the example of agriculture and allied services that make for 14 per cent of India's

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70% of India’s sandstone productionhappened in Rajasthan in 2013/14. But child labour is flourishing unabated in the industry

chain has been the use of child labour. Tobacco and tobacco products contribute about Rs. 20,000 crore to the ex-chequer by way of excise duty. India earned $833.42 million in 2011/12 and $1.01 billion in 2013/14 from tobacco exports.

According to the ICAR-Central Tobacco Research Institute, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar accounts for 0.20 lakh hectare of tobacco production in the country. Locals say that almost 70 per cent of the economy of Samastipur, 60 per cent of Vaishali and 40 per cent of Muzaffarpur depends on tobacco. Pramod Kumar, Sarpanch of Satanpur in Samastipur district, explains that most of the processes in production are outsourced and so it's the contractors who use child labour. This labour comes cheap. For example, a contractor pays Rs. 5,000 to children for clearing weeds in one-acre plantation but would have to shell out around Rs. 8,500 for adult labourers. Similarly, after harvesting is done by the adults, children are used by contractors to acquire the plants. Usually, a child is paid only Rs. 20 to Rs. 30 for the job while adults are paid Rs. 150 to Rs. 200. Going by thumb rule, one acre produces 10 quintals of tobacco. By using child labour on every acre, Rs. 20,000 is saved. Contractors and farmers insist that if they stop using child labour, their profits will shrink drastically, as all the cost is saved at the labour end only, be it at the farming stage or the processing stage.

It's a given that cost of production and hence procurement will rise in many labour-intensive sectors without child workers. Davuluri Venkateswarlu, Director at Glocal Research and Consultancy Services, Hyderabad, did a study on the cost benefit of employing children vis-a-vis adult labour in hybrid cottonseed sector in Andhra Pradesh. To finance the total replacement of child labour in the cottonseed sector, at least a 12 per cent rise in procurement price is needed and a further eight per cent increase to meet wage inflation costs yearly - if wages are to be on a par with local market rates. If wages in the cottonseed sector are to be on a par with minimum government prescribed wages then a 37.7 per cent rise in procurement price is necessary.

In 2010, the US Ministry of Commerce reportedly wrote to the Indian government that the Obama administration was considering a ban GDP and engage maximum number of children. Enakshi Thukral, Co-on imports of granite and sandstone from India, as mines in Director, HAQ Centre for Child Rights, says that our attitude to the Rajasthan were violating international labour standards. However, existence of child labour is indifferent and unless it is visibly experts say child-labour-free cobbles is not a solution; it is a band-hazardous we think it is normal and even find excuses for it.aid approach to a deeper issue.

Take the example of tobacco farming. Children get between Rs 10 "The buyers want to label the stone as ethically sourced without and Rs 30 a day for doing the most tedious job in the tobacco stipulating conditions to their Indian business counterparts. They production chain. Right from planting to the final stage of preparing should be ready to a pay a premium even if it means to cut down their the produce to be sent to manufacturing units, children are the profit marginally, to cobbles made legally and under proper work preferred choice of contractors and marginal farmers.conditions," says Sengupta . Their insistence on ensuring child-

In Bihar's Samastipur district alone, about 25,000 children are labour-free products is only making the situation worse. "Today, involved in the tobacco producing value chain, according to Dilip the children are trained by their employees to deny that they make Kumar Giri, Vice President of the Bihar unit of Bachpan Bachao cobbles. Their parents are threatened to say that they have no Andolan. "Most of these children are enrolled in schools and debt, no health issues and their children go to school when the regularly attend school. The biggest attraction for them and their reality is the opposite."families is the mid-day meal. Free dress and scholarship for

Meanwhile, the civil society hails the Child Labour (Prohibition and backward and extremely backward castes is also a big draw. Regulation) Amendment Bill as a step in the right direction. But Before going to the school and after coming back from the school whether things will change on the ground remains to be seen, they engage in tobacco production," he says. India is the third-considering the socio-economic realities in India.largest producer of tobacco in the world after China and Brazil.

Indeed, one of the biggest problems globally in the tobacco supply RESEARCH INPUTS BY NITI KIRAN

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Exploitative system: Children get between Rs.10 and Rs.30 a day for doing the most tedious jobs in the tobacco production chain

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JURY’S SPECIAL MENTION AWARD

Sonal Khetarpal

Sonal Khetarpal is a Principal Correspondent with Business Today, one of the India’s distinguished business magazines. Sonal has worked in the field of publishing and journalism for over eight years. She started her journalism career in India writing about entrepreneurship for Inc. India, the Indian version of the American magazine Inc. She has reported extensively on entrepreneurship, start-ups, management and social media. She particularly enjoys writing on inclusion and diversity issues at workplaces. At Business Today, her focus is on writing about management and digital media trends. She holds an English (Hons) degree from University of Delhi, and a Masters in English Literature from National University of Singapore. When not chasing stories and battling deadlines, she finds solace in food, mountains and all things green.

Sonal Khetarpal won the PoleStar Award for her article,‘Insensitive Inc.’, which appeared in Business World

www.polestar-foundation.org

Sonal Khetarpal

n a cold January afternoon, Aradhana Lal, Vice President for sustainability initiatives of hotel chain Lemon Tree, sits Oin her office in Delhi NCR with this interviewer sipping tea.

As she begins chatting, a short man walks in requesting her intervention in an urgent personal matter. He says he wants to continue on the afternoon shift as he doesn’t like coming to work in the morning. He goes on to tell her he finds it difficult to wake up early as he watches the teleserial CID at 10 p.m. An alibi like that would have ordinarily been dismissed with a warning, but Lal seems sympathetic. She explains that the man suffers from Down Syndrome, and that such people are most particular about their routines and detest changes.

Welcome to an inclusive workplace. Lemon Tree, according to Lal, started making its workforce inclusive in 2007 by employing speech and hearing impaired. Today, 15 per cent or 400

and over,” he says, adding, “What about the other companies employees of its workforce in its 27 hotels across 16 cities in that do not employ a single PWD? They need to be shamed too.”India, are persons with disability (PWD). The company is

currently doing a pilot project in New Delhi to employ people Abidi cites the World Health Organisation (WHO) of 2011 which with autism and another in Bengaluru to enlist people with low reported that there were one billion people with disabilities in vision/visual impairment, informs Lal. the world. “If you go by the WHO data, India should have more

than 150 million PWDs. If you compare it to the available data Turning A Blind Eye from the 2011 Census, India has merely 26 million people with disabilities. This is such an understatement,” he says. But Lemon Tree is just among a handful of companies that

recognises PWDs as an alternative talent pool. The picture on Drawing attention to the magnitude of the problem, Abidi says the whole is pretty dismal. The public sector has been equally that out of the 150 million PWDs in the country, at least 60 to 70 unresponsive to the rights of PWDs. Take the case of the 115 million must be of employable age, but the cold and bitter truth persons cured from leprosy that human rights lawyer Jayshree is that not even 2 per cent of them are employed. That’s abysmal Satpute has been fighting for employment in the railway compared to our next door neighbour China, where 80 per cent department as per the government’s rehabilitation policy. of PWDs are in regular jobs. “These 115 persons have been fighting for over 25 years for

their fundamental rights. In spite of several Supreme Court and The government is now promoting the Accessible India high court orders, they are still waiting for the government to campaign to include PWDs in the mainstream world and the reinstate their dignity and job,” says Satpute. intention is laudable. But can a blind person independently book

a railway ticket or access the banking system yet? “Our schools, The government’s efforts to incentivise employment of PWDs colleges, universities and public infrastructure are still have not had the desired effect so far. It has announced completely inaccessible to people with disabilities. In a budget incentives for private sector companies employing PWDs up to 5 analysis done by NCPEDP, we found that in all the Union budgets per cent of their workforce under Section 41 of the Disability Act since 2008, India has spent only 0.009 per cent of its gross of 1995, but there has been little change on the ground. One domestic product on disability. It may be wishful thinking but our hopes things will improve with the Right of Persons with demand is that atleast 3 per cent of the government’s budget Disability Bill that’s pending in the Rajya Sabha, which if passed must be deployed towards the cause of its disabled citizens, shall reserve 5 per cent of seats in government-owned or -considering the large numbers,” says Abidi.controlled establishments for PWDs.We Can’t FlyBut people like Javed Abidi, Director of the National Centre for

Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP), are The key problem seems to be that of perception about disability. very sceptical. “I can bet that private sector has not even Says Shashaank Awasthi, Co-founder of v-shesh Learning touched one per cent yet. There are only a handful of companies Services that trains and connects PWDs to their first job: “The that employ PWDs and that gets romanticised in the media over world we live in is largely bi-polar, non-disabled versus the

Insensitive Inc.

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There’re as few jobs for the disabled in the country as disabled-friendly toilets. Inclusion initiatives are still few and far between

Lessons in Sensitivity: An in-house trainer gives a course on Indian Sign Language to the empoyees of The Lemon Tree hotel at its Aerocity branch in Delhi NCR

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disabled. Disability is created not due to an inability to do workforce is PWDs, whether it’s physical, visual, auditory, something but due to physical and mental barriers that hinder cognitive, mental health, or multiple disability.participation of PWDs as an equal. The perception of an

“Inclusion will never work as charity because then it will put impairment influencing intellectual ability has no basis but is yet pressure on the business. It is about understanding that a key hindrance that people with disabilities battle with on a inclusive workforces yield superior results and make better daily basis.” economic sense in the long run,” says Awasthi.

The problem isn’t that PWDs lack intellectual faculty but the Job Mappingnormalised world that didn’t give them equal opportunities to

learn and participate. According to the 2011 World Report on One important part of hiring PWDs is ensuring the performance Disability by the World Bank and WHO, PWDs are less likely to doesn’t get affected in any way by their disability. To do that, attend and complete school, more likely to be victims of finding the right role for them in a company is key. Organisations discrimination and sexual violence, and lack of financial such as v-shesh and EnAble India spend days at a company’s resources hinder them from entering the labour market. office to understand each job profile and then suggest where

PWDs can perform to their potential. “It is not one job fit for all According to Awasthi, the entire concept of inclusion is lopsided. PWDs as there are a range of disabilities, academic The common perception is of ‘we’ including ‘them’. “Don’t we all backgrounds and interests. So, you have to understand the have different abilities? In fact, they have learnt to live in this qualification and training required and the business outcome world, however it may be. It is ‘us’ who have to learn and that is expected so you can provide the candidate with the right understand how ‘they’ experience the world. Organisations that skill set for employment,” says Awasthi.hire PWDs provide an opportunity for non-disabled ‘us’ to learn

and understand how the disabled ‘they’ experience the world. It With right job mapping and reasonable accommodations, PWDs is the non-disabled that are in fact being included by PWDs,” he deliver on the same targets and pay scale as non-disabled says. colleagues. Treating them any less can only fuel a sense of

discrimination and failure, says Awasthi. According to him, Dipesh Sutariya, co-founder and CEO of EnAble India, a there have been cases where the managers would not give Bangalore-based organisation that helps people with disability PWDs enough work so as to not over-burden them or just let gain employment, makes an interesting point. “We don’t see not them rest. So, they had to intervene and ensure their full being able to fly as a disability. This is because none of us can. potential is utilised. So, we use an alternative — an airplane.” Similarly, if a person

cannot see, he says, it should not be seen as his disability, but an Awasthi points out that it is important to work with companies in ‘inability’ and he should use an alternative, a cane to walk or a pre- and post-employment stages to watch out for and address screen reader software to ‘see’ the computer. biases that hinder companies from integrating PWDs in

workplaces and help in retaining them.Not Just CSROnce the job mapping is done, it opens up the role for other Inclusion does not begin or end with hiring 10-15 PWDs and organisations/units to do the same. In 2012, EnAble India helped making ramps or adding disabled-friendly washrooms for them. State Bank of India make its PWDs productive at a branch after It is not just a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative that all the visually impaired people who worked as telephone companies can boast of to look good. Inclusion will happen only operators had little else to do with the advent of mobile phones. when it is a part of the company’s policies and hiring strategy EnAble India did a job analysis of different roles at the bank and and is not just included as an afterthought. It has to start from identified 47 different roles, one of them being passbook choosing an office premise that is accessible to providing the printing for the visually impaired. But there was a catch. The assistive technology to help them have equal access to perform account number had to be manually fed into the system which their day-to-day jobs, says Shilpi Kapoor, co-founder of posed a problem for the visually impaired. So, EnAble India BarrierBreak, a Mumbai-based company that provides assistive suggested creating bar codes on passbooks which then technology for PWDs. Seventy-five per cent of the company’s eliminated the need for the manual update.

“Dignity is very importantfor them (PWDs) too sothere is no need to treatthem with sympathy ormollycoddle them”

ARADHANA LALVice President, SustainabilityInitiatives, The Lemon Tree Hotel Company

first two speech and hearing impaired employees came to work for a few days and then stopped. When the partner NGO enquired, it was discovered they felt a communication gap with other colleagues as no one knew Indian Sign Language (ISL) properly. The company then made ISL compulsory for all and hired a permanent in-house ISL trainer besides running monthly refresher programmes.

At F&B retail company Devyani International that runs Costa Coffee and KFC, the training modules were made accessible to PWDs so they don’t lose on any skill and knowledge development opportunity and get equal opportunities to take on managerial roles, informs Virendra P. Singh, Executive Director of HR. After the training, they work in the kitchen and in the customer service area also. “In fact most of the times, customers do not notice that they are specially abled,” he says. Now, PWDs constitute 5 per cent of the total workforce at KFC and 11 per cent at Costa Coffee across India.

Benefits

Companies are slowly starting to recognise a strong business case for employing skilled PWDs, with many proving to be particularly loyal employees, as well as frequently outperforming their able-bodied colleagues.

The attrition rate at BarrierBreak is less than 1 per cent. “What we do is invest in them mostly by doing a two-month training to help them learn the accessibility standards for different

This one workplace solution at the SBI branch opened up the software or web applications. This then helps them to read code, role at all the branches of SBI that has over 21,000 jobs just for access web and do their job better,” says Kapoor of passbook printing. All it needed was a sense of initiative and a BarrierBreak.willingness to change. Over the years, EnAble India has

Also, companies nowadays look at hiring people with the right identified 272 different job roles in private and public sector attitude than with the skill, as the latter can be taught. Since companies that PWDs can perform. They have already placed PWDs have to struggle more to live in the ‘normal’ world, they 4,500 candidates in 24 cities in the country.are more persistent and have stronger fighter skills. In fact, a lot

Efficacy Of Training of times they are more sensitive and conscious about other people’s needs. Companies must learn to be careful about the sensitivities of

PWDs through workshops and regular training sessions. Inclusion also leads to a lot more diversity in the organisation “Dignity is very important for them too so there is no need to where all employees bring their best and work as a team. Lal treat them with sympathy or mollycoddle them,” says Lal. Here, shares how chefs, who are often known to be hot tempered, sensitisation of all the employees in the company will be key. have become more patient over time as they work closely with

people with Down Syndrome in the restaurant. “It impacts team When Lemon Tree started its inclusion initiative in 2007, their members’ behaviour towards each other, they become more relaxed and open-minded,” she says.

Says Sutaria of EnAble India that provides PWDs to 600 companies, “Now the situation is that several companies are in the waiting list because we don’t have that many persons with disability for placement.”

Recently, online ethnic India wear brand Viva N Diva in a bold move chose an acid attack survivor Laxmi as the face of its advertising campaign.

Slowly but surely, the movement has started, and as awareness increases with the Accessibility India programme, we can expect inclusion to become more mainstream. For our part, it’s time we start seeing the world as non-dual where they are active participants rather than passive recipients of sympathy and charity.

With inputs from Mala Bhargava

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An Equal World: At Costa Coffee, managed by Devyani International, PWDs constitute 11 per cent of the total workforce

Change Agents: People with disabilities at The Lemon Tree Hotel are bringing about positive change in the behaviour of other employees

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