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A courier company in Mumbai, which employs only deaf workers, is playing a major role in changing social perception that those who cannot hear need charity to survive. Aiming to empower those who cannot hear and are, therefore, unable to find jobs due to social stigmas, the company, Mirakle Couriers, has set up a pick-up and delivery service in Mumbai. Spa services by the blind, courier delivery by the deaf and coffee outlet jobs for the deaf and dumb — growing individual efforts have been seen to help the disabled community in India, which is riding on its will power and hard work to carve a niche for its members in a space dominated by the general population. Established by former investment banker Dhruv Lakra in 2008, Mirakle Couriers currently employs 55 deaf staffers. “I found myself on a bus one day sitting next to a boy who was deaf, and realised he had difficulty knowing where to get off since all stop announcements were made on the loudspeaker. The massive communication barrier for deaf people makes everything extremely hard,” says Lakra. The idea of starting a courier service was conceived as it is something, which does not require verbal communication with the end customer. Schools for the deaf were handy in choosing for early placements, but once the word got around in the deaf community, Lakra began to see a surge in job applicants whom he promptly interviewed and chose suitable persons. Women take up the back office work while field work is left to the men. Training and communication is done completely in Indian sign language. Similarly, coffee chain Costa Coffee employs deaf and dumb workers in its outlets in Delhi and Gurgaon. One of the outlets in Gurgaon is entirely run by a staff of eight specially-abled employees. “ These people are very good in observation,” says Balpreet Grover, HR, Costa Coffee. Nobody was willing to employ them. Earlier they worked as telephone operators but mobile phones took away their jobs. These people are hundred times better than sighted reflexologists. They can concentrate more and have a direct connection with customers.
— PTI
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