All it took him to walk on a path of great social service was a bus
ride with a deaf person. 29-year-old MBA from Oxford University,
originally hailing from Jammu, Dhruv Lakra is a case in study — for
the efforts he has made to bring normalcy to the lives of 60 deaf boys
and girls. MOHIT KANDHARI tells you how a courier service has made a
big difference
When you believe in them, miracles do happen. Twenty-year-old Dhruv
Lakra, a former investment banker and a Skoll scholar (2007-08) from
Oxford University, believed in himself and a 'Mirakle' happened in his
life in 2009.
It was just Dhruv whose life that 'Mirakle' touched, it affected the
lives of a large number of deaf adults who believed in themselves and
purposefully joined hands with this young, educated man to realise
their dreams of leading an independent life of respect and pride.
Before Dhruv brought together these young chaps under one roof to
start his dream venture 'Mirakle Couriers', a business enterprise with
a social cause, very few people had ever spared a thought to
economically empower the deaf community in India.
It took a local bus journey for Dhruv to pave the path of growth for
people unknown to him. In Mumbai, all public transport use speakers to
make announcements or indicate the next stop. However, the person
sitting next to him wasn't responding to any of them even till the
last stop. It was then that he realised that the person was deaf. "A
very normal and daily activity of listening to people and noises
around was an issue with this person. It left an impact on me," he
tells you.
During that time Dhruv also realised that the deaf community needed a
lot of assistance as they have been significantly neglected. "Of all
the disabilities, deafness is the least thought about, sympathy is
always given to the blind, or physically handicapped people. I wanted
to do something for the deaf and engage them in the mainstream of the
society. Hence 'Mirakle Couriers' was born and earned the label of
becoming the first company where only deaf adults were employed,"
Dhruv says.
He thought of a work where no verbal exchange was required. Only
deliveries were to be made at the doorsteps of customers, which could
be easily managed by the deaf after adequate training. For other kind
of office work and learning, all they needed were their fingers to
communicate via sign language.
However, working with deaf adults, especially those without any
academic background, was never easy in the absence of the knowledge of
Indian sign language. So, the first thing that the young proprietor
did was learn the sign language and acquaint himself with the routine
hardships faced by deaf people when they are out alone in the bad
world.
Before starting the business operations, Dhruv decided to carry out
pilot projects, with assistance from a small team, to study the
financial viability of the project he was about to undertake. The
investment banker had earlier quitted his lucrative job to work for a
non-Governmental organisation and later went on to do his MBA from
Oxford University. On his return he got into the act and to begin with
employed two deaf persons in October 2008 and trained them on how to
navigate the city of Mumbai with the help of specially prepared city
maps for their assistance.
To improve the delivery system, he himself walked across major
business centres of Mumbai to gather first-hand information of various
challenges and how to overcome hindrances. He skipped many a lunches
and survived on a staple diet of 'vada pav' and 'cutting chai'
shuttling between Mumbai local trains.
In his blog Dhruv once wrote: "I walked (the) entire Bandra, some
parts of Juhu, Goregaon and Andheri for deliveries with Ravindra. He
is the first deaf boy that we have hired. I can assure you that this
is one hell of an experience — to find buildings/apartments/localities
when you are deaf. I pretended to be deaf myself and wanted to see how
people react. One thing is for sure, when you tell people in India
that you can't hear, the first thing that they do is scream and when I
mean 'scream', they really do that. I guess this is human nature that
people start yelling when you tell them that you can't hear. It was a
really funny sight, people screaming "take the first left and then the
second right, and stop at the signal". This got me thinking how does
it feel to be constantly yelled at all the time since one was a child.
People trying to make you understand without actually signing the
words and not writing things down. I wanted to map the city looking
through the eyes of a deaf person as we were supposed to rely on the
Mumbai rail network to deliver our shipments in faster time. There was
no scope for the error and delay, as we wanted to compete with the big
brands in the industry without compromising on the quality of the
services," Dhruv wrote.
"None of our boys have ever delivered a parcel at a wrong address. We
are maintaining a zero defect record till date," he tells you with a
smile.
As Dhruv and his small team of workers started learning the robes of
the trade and improvised different indigenous techniques to improve
their efficiency, several corporate houses came forward to help them.
One of them gave them a prime property in the Churchgate business
centre, while the other lent support by extending more business.
From a modest beginning in January 2009, Mirakle Couriers is now
delivering about 50,000 shipments a month. Business is expanding
slowly and currently they have a staff strength of 60 employees. The
majority of employees have either worked in different industries and
had left their jobs as they were not satisfied, or were beginners. "We
were treated shabbily by our employers and not given due wages,"
confided most of the deaf employees who joined Dhruv's courier service
when they found a different working environment in Mirakle Couriers.
This office offers a great working experience to most of the
employees. Several senior women staff members remain a constant source
of energy and inspiration to several newcomers as they teach them sign
language, use of computers and provide emotional support in difficult
times. The background of the deaf employees sometimes pose a challenge
but unitedly the team has learnt to overcome such hardships and are
growing with each passing day.
"We hope to double the staff strength in the next nine months. We also expect to
double our shipments at the same rate. We have a large number of
clients that we cater to. A few examples are Vodafone, Aditya Birla
Group, Godrej & Boyce, Bain Capital and JSW," says Rohan Mehta, who
looks after media, marketing and business development operations. He
adds that the real strength of Mirakle Couriers is its small army of
the deaf. While girls do the sorting, boys go out for delivery.
"Inside the office we have a strong team of trained professionals who
regularly teach English language and computer handling to all the
employees using sign language," he tells you.
Ever since this set of boys and girls have started working and earning
salaries, the mindset of their families have undergone a seachange.
"Earlier they were in a habit of doubting their abilities, but now
they have recognised that they are the hardest working and highest
earning of the family," says Rohan. Instead of being a burden on the
family, many Mirakle employees have now become the primary
breadwinner. This phenomenon is quite an amazing feat and really does
a lot to empower such people.
In order to ease the burden of long hours of work, employees at
Mirakle Couriers crack jokes and often share lighter moments. They
often go out to attend specially arranged training sessions.
Factfile
90% of all deaf parents have hearing children
India has one of the highest deaf populations in the world with
approximately 6% of the population suffering some kind of hearing loss
Four out of 1,000 children in India are born deaf
Alexander Graham Bell, whose mother and wife were deaf, invented the telephone
It is estimated that 90% of deaf adults who were deaf as children use
sign language and most of them learnt it at schools for the deaf
Thomas Edison, the inventor of electricity, was deaf
American Sign language is the third-largest foreign language in the
US, out-ranked by Spanish and Italian
India celebrates the International Week for the Deaf in September, and
September 26 is recognised as the "Day of the Deaf" in India
Frenchman, Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée founded the world's first
public school for deaf in Paris in 18th century
Famous German composer and pianist Beethoven's hearing ability began
to deteriorate when he was in his twenties. Even after he became
completely deaf, he continued to compose music
Gallaudet University in the US is the world's only university with
courses and services specifically designed to accommodate deaf and
hard of hearing students. The University was founded in 1864.
THE IDEA BEHIND THE LOGO OF MIRAKLE COURIERS
Dhruv spent quality time in the company of close friends before
finalising the design of the logo. The idea was to raise a sense of
curiosity in the consumers' mind, spread the message about the Indian
sign language and make people aware of how the deaf communicate with
each other.
"This is the reason why we have shown 'I' in Indian sign language," says Dhruv.
It also shows that I (signifying a deaf person) can do this work and
the dot on the 'I' shows reaching for higher aspirations in life,
touching the sky. The word 'Mirakle' and tag line 'Delivering
possibilities' together bring a sense of awe and make people aware
that this is possible. The 'k' in Mirakle is for Karmic connection.
Mohit Kandhari,Senior Correspondent The Pioneer based in Jammu and Kashmir
No comments:
Post a Comment