India Inc brings employees with disabilities to the fore

For years, companies have been hiring people with disabilities mostly for back-end roles. That's changing with many firms, including IndiGo and Zomato hiring PWDs for customer-facing roles.

Lemon Tree, Pepe Jeans, KFC, JW Marriott, Wow! Momo Foods, and Shoppers Stop are among the other companies offering front-facing roles to PWDs, and some of these firms are looking at increasing the number of such employees by 100% or more in FY25, their executives said.

Taking the lead, Indigo's group chief human resources officer Sukhjit S Pasricha recently completed his basic sign language lessons. "The most exciting event was to know my 'sign name' given by colleagues with speech and hearing impairment," he told ET.


And this inclusivity game is good for business, executives said.

"Passengers with disabilities are likely to appreciate the presence of employees who share their lived experiences and understand their specific needs," Pasricha said.

Having individuals with disabilities in front-facing roles has helped the country's leading airline that now plans to increase the number of such employees "by at least two-folds in the coming financial year", Pasricha said.

IndiGo currently has over 170 individuals with disabilities across over 60 cities in customer-facing roles. Zomato has onboarded over 300 persons with disabilities into its delivery fleet. "We plan to onboard 1,000 more in 2024," said Anjalli Ravi Kumar, chief sustainability officer of the food delivery platform.

Zomato has put in place infrastructural measures, including placements of ramps, differently abled-friendly elevators, gender-neutral accessible toilets, and accessible parking at its corporate office, she said.

Luxury hotel chain JW Marriott, too, is providing support to differently abled talent, enabling them to contribute actively and thrive, according to Kunal Chauhan, general manager at JW Marriott Mumbai Sahar. "Aligned with the core value of 'respect for all', JW Marriott Mumbai Sahar is actively recruiting differently abled individuals and ensuring their seamless integration into our team," he said.

Lemon Tree Hotels started hiring talent from marginalised backgrounds, including PWDs over a decade ago and is now aiming to double the share of such employees to 30% by FY26 from 15% now, said Aradhana Lal, senior VP - sustainability & ESG at Lemon Tree Hotels.

"Integrating persons with disabilities into your company is simple; the key is preparing the organisation first through sensitisation, tailored training, and ensuring roles suit their abilities," she said.

The retail sector - which as an industry is the second-largest employer in the country after agriculture - has only about 1% of its workforce from the pool of people with disabilities.

This is due to non-existence of PWD-friendly infrastructure, identification of roles, training, and sensitisation, among other things, experts said.

Many big retailers are taking steps to change that.

"We will start at least having them (PWDs) in mind while we design the stores," said Tejaswini Nigam, general manager - visual merchandising and styling head at Pepe Jeans India.

Lal and Nigam were speaking at a summit on inclusion in the retail sector held by Retailers Association of India (RAI) and Trust for Retailers and Retail Associates of India (Trrain) last month.