Jul 17 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)
RIGHT COURSE FOR THE DIFFERENTLY ABLED - They Came not on Their Own & Still Conquered IIMs
DEVINA SENGUPTA & ANUMEHA CHATURVEDI
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MUMBAI | NEW DELHI
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India's top business schools go the extra mile to help students with special needs
He often mixes up `who' with `how'. And, when asked for directions, he needs to look at the hand with which he eats to point towards the right direction. Apoorv Agarwal is dyslexic and has just made it to Indian Institute of Management, Raipur, acknowledging his disability for the first time during his interview there.“Because of high content of lead in my blood, language comprehension gets affected, but I will manage because I need to be an example for my sister,“ says Agarwal. His sister too suffers from the disorder.
Sai Prasad Vishwanathanan wheel-chaired his way into Indian School of Business, Bangalore, in 2010 and was hired by Deloitte. He was operated unsuccessfully for a birth condition of additional growth in spinal cord. Subsequent injuries during childhood rendered him disabled.
Seventy-three such students with disabilities are now on campuses at a handful of IIMs ET spoke to for this story . There are more such heroes -with visual, locomotive, hearing and learning disorders -all defying life's cruel blows to make it to the IIMs. Some of them were chosen in general quota -in some cases at the insistence of the candidate -though 3% of the seats are reserved for the disabled in IIMs.
ISB did away with stairs in one of its four entrance gates en abling Vishwa abling Vishwa nathan to take the wheelchair, put a ramp around his ac commodation, built a new washroom, gave him a bat tery-powered wheelchair that cost them . 1 lakh, and ` brought down the height of the stage on his graduating day.
“It touched me when ISB started making changes because it was the right thing to do and not because they could foresee numbers of students like me going up in future,“ says Vishwanathan. “Reservation is not the answer.
What we need is the right infrastructure that can make life easy ,“ Vishwanathan said.
B-schools are trying their best for their disabled students by adding voice announcement facility in lifts, providing them motorised wheelchairs, giving more time to students with learning disorders, adopting special software for the blind and encouraging volunteers to help them in their studies. Infrastructural changes have been made in class rooms and hostels, and students have been sensitised on the needs of the specially-abled. Some IIMs are also in the process of creating a special centre where the needs of the differently-abled can be discussed and met.
IIM Calcutta is planning a centre for specially-abled students.
With 26 such students this year (batch 2015 and 2016), it is an urgent need for the institute.
IIM Kozhikode set up an audit committee last month to make infrastructural changes to cater to the needs of the differentlyabled. “The institute is built on a hill, so we are reviewing the entire space,“ said Debashis Chatterjee, dean of IIM-K.
The B-school has 20 such students in the campus this year.
“There was difficulty in getting qualified DA students in the past. Now, the awareness has increased. This year we could fill up 10 seats out of the 12 in the DA category,“ he added. The Bschool has also admitted meritorious students with special needs in the general category.
In 2010, IIM Bangalore installed a lift with features such as voice announcement and accessible control panel for easy access to classrooms and offices on higher floors. They installed Braille in computers and bought motorised chairs for those with locomotive disorders.
“Professors give me notes a day before the lecture and when there are many equations solved on the board, volunteers from other classes sit with me and explain what is being written,“ says C Gaurav. He is blind and made it to the 2016 batch at IIM Bangalore.
IIMB appoints readers, scribes and tutors as and when required for the 27 such students on the campus now.
Newer IIMs aren't far behind.
IIM Raipur, for example, gives all visually-impaired students larger hostel rooms, which they have to share with two other roommates who do not face similar needs. “This was done to ensure that even if one room mate is not there, we are not alone,“ says Yogesh Gupta (24) from the 2015 batch.
Gupta became blind in 2005 and found it difficult to learn Braille. He relies on speech software to understand notes. Gupta wants to make a career in marketing in the logistics industry.
An internship with Transport Corporation of India this year has boosted his confidence. His classmate Piyush Rakheja wants a career in finance and absence of sight holds no barrier for this commerce graduate from Kolkata.
SUPPORT FROM RECRUITERS Recruiters are also doing their bit. Vodafone just recruited two management trainees with special needs from campuses out of a total of 110 management trainees.
“We have not yet hired students with special needs and it hasn't come up in our hiring discussions, but we will look out for such students closely and will be delighted to hire them,“ says Sachin Nandgaonkar, partner, and head of recruitments for Boston Consulting Group in India.
“Recruitments of the specially-abled tie in with our policy on inclusion, and students are assessed on a variety of factors, including marks and capabilities,“ says P Thiruvengadam, senior director, human capital, Deloitte.
Meanwhile, Vishwanathan will be leaving for a US stint with Deloitte next month.
Sai Prasad Vishwanathanan wheel-chaired his way into Indian School of Business, Bangalore, in 2010 and was hired by Deloitte. He was operated unsuccessfully for a birth condition of additional growth in spinal cord. Subsequent injuries during childhood rendered him disabled.
Seventy-three such students with disabilities are now on campuses at a handful of IIMs ET spoke to for this story . There are more such heroes -with visual, locomotive, hearing and learning disorders -all defying life's cruel blows to make it to the IIMs. Some of them were chosen in general quota -in some cases at the insistence of the candidate -though 3% of the seats are reserved for the disabled in IIMs.
ISB did away with stairs in one of its four entrance gates en abling Vishwa abling Vishwa nathan to take the wheelchair, put a ramp around his ac commodation, built a new washroom, gave him a bat tery-powered wheelchair that cost them . 1 lakh, and ` brought down the height of the stage on his graduating day.
“It touched me when ISB started making changes because it was the right thing to do and not because they could foresee numbers of students like me going up in future,“ says Vishwanathan. “Reservation is not the answer.
What we need is the right infrastructure that can make life easy ,“ Vishwanathan said.
B-schools are trying their best for their disabled students by adding voice announcement facility in lifts, providing them motorised wheelchairs, giving more time to students with learning disorders, adopting special software for the blind and encouraging volunteers to help them in their studies. Infrastructural changes have been made in class rooms and hostels, and students have been sensitised on the needs of the specially-abled. Some IIMs are also in the process of creating a special centre where the needs of the differently-abled can be discussed and met.
IIM Calcutta is planning a centre for specially-abled students.
With 26 such students this year (batch 2015 and 2016), it is an urgent need for the institute.
IIM Kozhikode set up an audit committee last month to make infrastructural changes to cater to the needs of the differentlyabled. “The institute is built on a hill, so we are reviewing the entire space,“ said Debashis Chatterjee, dean of IIM-K.
The B-school has 20 such students in the campus this year.
“There was difficulty in getting qualified DA students in the past. Now, the awareness has increased. This year we could fill up 10 seats out of the 12 in the DA category,“ he added. The Bschool has also admitted meritorious students with special needs in the general category.
In 2010, IIM Bangalore installed a lift with features such as voice announcement and accessible control panel for easy access to classrooms and offices on higher floors. They installed Braille in computers and bought motorised chairs for those with locomotive disorders.
“Professors give me notes a day before the lecture and when there are many equations solved on the board, volunteers from other classes sit with me and explain what is being written,“ says C Gaurav. He is blind and made it to the 2016 batch at IIM Bangalore.
IIMB appoints readers, scribes and tutors as and when required for the 27 such students on the campus now.
Newer IIMs aren't far behind.
IIM Raipur, for example, gives all visually-impaired students larger hostel rooms, which they have to share with two other roommates who do not face similar needs. “This was done to ensure that even if one room mate is not there, we are not alone,“ says Yogesh Gupta (24) from the 2015 batch.
Gupta became blind in 2005 and found it difficult to learn Braille. He relies on speech software to understand notes. Gupta wants to make a career in marketing in the logistics industry.
An internship with Transport Corporation of India this year has boosted his confidence. His classmate Piyush Rakheja wants a career in finance and absence of sight holds no barrier for this commerce graduate from Kolkata.
SUPPORT FROM RECRUITERS Recruiters are also doing their bit. Vodafone just recruited two management trainees with special needs from campuses out of a total of 110 management trainees.
“We have not yet hired students with special needs and it hasn't come up in our hiring discussions, but we will look out for such students closely and will be delighted to hire them,“ says Sachin Nandgaonkar, partner, and head of recruitments for Boston Consulting Group in India.
“Recruitments of the specially-abled tie in with our policy on inclusion, and students are assessed on a variety of factors, including marks and capabilities,“ says P Thiruvengadam, senior director, human capital, Deloitte.
Meanwhile, Vishwanathan will be leaving for a US stint with Deloitte next month.
