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January 2009 Edition

 

Rina Mukherji
Katpadi (Tamil Nadu)

THE factories look humdrum. There is the din of machines, the clink of tools and the clash of metal. Assembly lines have diligent workers poring over electronic meters for state electricity boards. Some are manufacturing nice garbage carts for municipalities. Others concentrate on high precision hydraulic equipment for the auto sector.

Look around. These are not ordinary factories. Every worker here is differently abled. Some are speech impaired or hearing impaired. Others have missing limbs or are quadriplegics bound to a wheelchair. Disability is not a handicap for them. Note Raju Gopal, an experienced foreman. His artificial limb doesn't hamper him from guiding operations at the boiler unit, or commuting in his two-wheeler.

The factories belong to the Worth Trust in Katpadi, Vellore . It employs people with disability. Most organizations which help the differently abled have a rather charitable air. The Worth Trust is different. It trains the differently abled for employment and strives to be a commercially competitive outfit. The Trust produces components for the automobile, plastics, sanitary-ware, furniture and packing industries. Jobs being done include making boiler equipment for Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, plastic components for microwave ovens and sanitary ware for Parryware. Worth Trust also manufactures mobility aids and prosthetic equipment for the disabled.

Salaries here are at par with industry standards. The profits earned are ploughed into education and training centres for rehabilitating the disabled. The trust runs outreach programmes to identify and help the disabled in villages. It distributes assistive devices free of cost. Unlike organisations who canvas for donations on their websites, the Worth Trust only asks visitors to recommend disabled persons whom it could employ at its workshops and units. For its amazing work, the Worth Trust was honoured with the Shell Helen Keller Memorial Award in 2004 by the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled Persons.

The Worth Trust began as a light engineering workshop with machines imported from Sweden . It was started in 1963 by Dr Paul Brand of the Swedish Red Cross in Katpadi to rehabilitate victims of leprosy who were shunned by society. At that time it produced hydraulic equipment for the auto sector nearby. A year later, C Antony Samy joined after doing his Master's degree in engineering from the US . Antony Samy's vision and guidance shaped the trust which he served for more than forty years.

In 1974, the Swedish Red Cross withdrew and handed over the Worth Trust to a group of socially conscious industrialists in South India . Guided by Antony Samy, the trust started technical training centres at its premises in Katpadi, in 1976. Centres were also established in Pondicherry and Tiruchirapalli. These technical training centres train disabled youth to become turners, welders and skilled electronics workers. Youth learn on the job and are provided free hostel accommodation, an internship stipend and uniforms. "We only charge Rs 350 per month for food," says Lt Colonel T G Venkatesh, Vice- President, Administration, Training and Finance. Of late, computer training has been introduced.

Non-formal training is for those who have not completed schooling or who are not inclined to study further. For those who have completed secondary school formal training is imparted along the lines of the Industrial Training Institute (ITI) certificate course, since the Trust runs a National Council of Vocational Training (NCVT) centre on its premises at Katpadi.

Many young people have benefited. S Jayakumar who is speech and hearing impaired joined the assembly line to repair electrical meters after doing the non-formal training course. K Gomati of Vaijapet village, affected by polio, and S Sumati from Kudiyallam village in Vellore district work in the same department after getting their ITI certificates. Senthil Kumar, a polio-affected quadriplegic, joined the division after completing junior college from Don Bosco. He has two ITI qualifications in electronics and computers. Polio-affected V Venkatesan and Manikantam who is speech and hearing impaired, work in the plastics division after having done the two years of non-formal on the job training.

There are opportunities for upward mobility too. Devadayavu, who supervises the training unit, joined the trust's workshop in 1973 after undergoing non-formal training. He then did two years of formal training to earn his ITI certificate in 1975-1977. After gaining some work experience in Coimbatore , he came back to the Worth Trust and has been working here ever since.

"A lot of persons trained by the trust move on and join factories elsewhere. Since we are not big enough to absorb everyone, we always encourage them if they succeed in securing employment outside," says Colonel K Radhakrishnan, managing director of the trust.

Worth Trust's high success rate in rehabilitating people with disability is because it identifies those who need help very early. It has a Mobile Outreach programme in Katpadi, Pondicherry and Trichy. The trust's vans visit adjoining villages at regular intervals and identify children in need of assistance. A transitional school for children with speech and hearing impairment is run in Katpadi. Children are given free boarding, lodging and education from the kindergarten to fourth grade. They go through babbling, group therapy and loop induction to helpthem speak. "Sign language is discouraged so that their residual speech can get fully developed on the strength of sound awareness," says Jayabharati, principal of the school.

The outreach programme for polio victims has been discontinued since the government's polio eradication drive has been successful. The school for polio victims has also been shut down. Since the past one year, the trust has moved on to caring for the mentally retarded, and those affected by cerebral palsy and Down's Syndrome. Around 47 children visit the centre. Another 25 are covered by the out- reach programmes. Speech therapists, counselors and special educators identify the strengths of each child and train them in appropriate life skills. The children are helped to become independent. Mentally retarded children are trained to string beads and make useful hand-made items that are sold to earn them a living.

The response to the trust has been overwhelming. Some like Mohammed Hashim, who suffers from cerebral palsy, come to the Worth Trust through referrals from the Christian Medical College , Vellore , after having undergone initial occupational therapy. Parents prefer to approach the trust. Nine-year-old Gracy's parents brought her all the way to Katpadi from the Yelagiri Hills since she was diagnosed as suffering from Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.

The Worth Trust has as its logo the symbol of the open wrench on either side of a flower with a missing petal signifying the disabled. It looks like two helping hands to integrate the disabled into society. This is the credo the trust has been living up to.

Significantly the Worth Trust has achieved global standards in manufacture. Its plastics unit has ISO 9002 certification. For manufacture of hydraulic equipment, the trust has an ISO 9001-2000 and a TS 16949 certification as required by vendors in the automobile industry. Its Braille unit, set up in collaboration with the Perkins School for the Blind, US, is one of the few units in the world that produce basic components for Braille typewriters.

Innovation has been the Trust's hallmark, especially for mobility aids. Its motorised arm with rechargeable batteries, developed in collaboration with the Christian Medical College , Vellore and the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, is the latest in a series of such aids, which include portable muscle stimulators, custom-made folding wheelchairs with special wheels for mountainous terrain and collapsible walkers.

The Worth Trust runs the District Disability Rehabilitation Centre (DDRC) in Vellore as part of the government's disability rehabilitation programme. In Trichy, the programme is run in collaboration with Sharon, an NGO. Under this programme, the Trust provides single window clearance for all relief and rehabilitation to the disabled. Any disabled person can walk in and avail of subsidies, get a disability certificates, a wheelchair or any other equipment.

The Worth Trust has reached out to nearly 10,000 disabled persons and successfully rehabilitated them. The International Labour Organization (ILO) taps into the trust's technical advice for skill up-gradation programmes for persons with disabilities from Uganda , Ethiopia and Malawi . Antony Samy, former managing director, not only served as Chief Technical Adviser to ILO and the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP), but was also responsible for the UNDP's largest project for the rehabilitation of people with disabilities in Kenya .

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