December 2007 Edition
Vidya Viswanathan
Ghaziabad (UP)
BALDEV Gulati could be just about any small businessman in
Ghaziabad’s collapsing industrial estates. A few hands, modest
turnover, low profits. But the truth is Gulati is a messiah
in his own right. Visually challenged, he has started a spice business
which employs 50 differently abled people like himself.
The spices go by the name of NP Masale, the brand coming from
Gulati’s company, Navprerna, which supplies spices to retailers, households in Ghaziabad and institutions like the India Habitat
Centre and Hotel Broadway.“This is not just a business. It enhances our visibility in society,”
he explains. “Physically challenged people buy ingredientsfrom
wholesalers. So wholesale traders treat them with respect
and negotiate as equals. We deliver to housewives and caterers
who negotiate with us. So mobility increases and that changesattitudes in society.”
Gulati’s employees are mostly unskilled people. Earlier, he ran
a unit which made candles that float on water. Disabled people
from villages were employed for 15 days. They underwent training
in work ethics. Then they were assessed to find out if they
could report on time and work productively for eight hours a
day. After that, Gulati found them employment in industries in Ghaziabad.
“I treat them really badly during those 15 days,” he says frankly about his internship scheme. “They will find the world outside a better place. They have to report to work on the dot. The disabled come with the expectation that they won’t measure up and so they work hard.”Gulati has got jobs for 253 disabled people in other companies. Word has spread and now people from faraway places likeAligarh, Badaiyan and Gorakhpur turn up at his unit for work. Gulati found that demand for candles was seasonal. He could employ people for only four or five months. He studied 250 businesses before zeroing in on the business of spices.“This has the highest return per lakh of investment for the disabled. It can employ people with all disabilities, skilled or unskilled. It won’t become obsolescent. With social changes, it will only grow. The food processing industry suffers from a high rate of adulteration and our products are pure,” he explains. Besides, he points out, housewives are not brand conscious and this is one business that is not likely to face competition from China because all the spices are grown here.
The shed for his business has been donated by Aditya Sachdev of Diamond Industries who runs three factories in Ghaziabad. For working capital, Gulati borrowed from banks. Gulati is clear that the disabled will have to create their own space in the ‘ruthless’ market economy. “The State can’t provide for us,” he says. “If the disabled have the money power to go to a movie hall, a club or a bar, these structures will be made accessible to them. We have to show businesses that it makes business sense to employ the disabled.” Gulati has mapped the problems that industries in Ghaziabad face. Able- bodied workers are paid less than minimum wages, so they leave if another employer pays just Rs 50 more. If workers are prevented from taking a break to smoke, chew tobacco or gossip, they take erratic toilet breaks. After salaries are disbursed there is absenteeism because of alcohol. Migrant workers go to their villages for festivals and don’t return on due date. Gulati tells businesses that disabled people are likely to be more loyal, take fewer breaks and are less likely to go on holidays. But convincing businesses that a disabled person can be equally productive is another matter.
In 2001, when Gulati began doing the rounds of companies with his walking stick, he could not get past the security guard. The guards were afraid that he would go inside and ask for charity. He got entry when he went with his wife but for six months he could not convince any employer to hire him. Gulati and his wife then approached the Noida SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) Association and asked for a 20- minute slot in one of their meetings. He promised not to appeal for charity. He got the Vocational Rehabilitation Centre in Delhi to ship machines and candidates to the meeting. During the tea break, association members saw disabled people working on lathes, sewing machines and computers. When they assembled, he requested them to light a floating candle for each person they were willing to employ. That worked. He now has a network of 30 companies.
Can this operation be scaled up? “That is a big question. The problem is disabled people are sometimes lazy and expect sympathy. They are normal human beings and once they see opportunity, they too leave. I have to make sure that I don’t lose my credibility,” he says. Life has been harsh for Gulati. His father, an iron rod trader, died when he was very young. Gulati’s four sisters are visually impaired too. His mother moved into her parent’s house. Gulati had to get up at 4:30 am to get milk from the government booth because it was Rs 2 cheaper per litre than the Mother Diary milk. “There used to be street dogs around. But then that is our country. We could not wait for things to get better and let life pass by,” he says philosophically. People advised his mother to admit her children into special schools for the visually impaired which offered boarding and lodging. When she visited those schools, she was appalled.
She read an advertisement for an integrated government school in the President’s Estate and enrolled her children. For several years she took them by bus from Tilak Nagar in West Delhi to Rashtrapati Bhavan and back. Her grit changed her fortune. She got a job at a telephone exchange in the estate and that got her government accommodation there. Gulati is extremely grateful for his school experience. “This was in 1975,” he recalls. “The school had two special teachers and a resource room. We got braille training, books and scribes.” He was determined to make a place for himself. When other boys played football, he kicked the ball against the practice wall. He graduated with high grades and an award for being an outstanding orator. That got him a place in Hindu College. In the early1990s, if you were visually impaired, you were expected to opt for a BA in education and then get a secure, reserved government teaching job. Three of Gulati’s sisters opted for that. But Gulati wanted more. He learnt French at the Alliance Francaise and graduated from the Delhi School of Social Work. Reality hit him after graduation. “I wanted to work in the development sector. I was determined not to limit myself to working only for the disabled,” he says. When he went for interviews, most employers advised him to carve a career in academics. “That was demeaning. I did not go to them for career counselling. Not one employer was curious enough to ask me what I could do for them. When I interview people, I do not tell them what to do,” he says. These experiences got him to work more imaginatively for the disabled.
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