SwarajAbility is India’s first AI-powered platform designed to connect persons with disabilities to job opportunities and training, aiming to foster inclusive markets and create employment opportunities for an underemployed demographic.
The win acknowledges the platform’s innovative approach to addressing unemployment and underemployment among persons with disabilities in India, where over 70% of the population with disabilities are unemployed or underemployed.
Conceived two and half years back. “Swaraj” is the Gandhian word for independence”; “Ability” as the abilities of disabled are leveraged. It is uniquely “of the disabled, by the disabled,” keeping youth with disability at the heart of its design. The NGO is run by 320 staff pan India staff. They work with 3000 or so corporate volunteers.
SwarajAbility’s partners include the Office of Principle Scientific Advisor, Govt of India; CII IBDN, ILO, Rasci (Retail sector skill council), Nimhans, National Institute of Empowerment of Persons with Intellectual disability, among others.
Youth4Jobs uses cutting- edge technologies to make it seamlessly accessible to youth with disabilities, even without a smart phone. It is available in 12 Indian languages and sign language videos for the speech and hearing impaired. In collaboration with ITQCR, the portal received WCAG 2.1 AA compliance certification.
How it Works
Candidates with any of the 21 disabilities defined by the Rights to PwD Act, 2016, receive personalized job recommendations on their dashboard. They can explore job trends and receive communication via email and SMS. All services are free.
Youth profile matching happens through an AI algorithm to company jobs, with the support of IIT Hyderabad. Employers can access candidate applications and directly initiate the hiring process. They can also consult Youth4Jobs for candidate recommendations, ensuring a human touch when handling this vulnerable group. A call centre in different languages including sign language supports youth and companies.
NGOs and institutions can upload bulk candidate data via their login. Once uploaded, candidates access all platform features, while NGOs track their journey. Government organizations connect through API, sharing candidate data and receiving placement reports. These reports aid policymakers by providing authentic data on this underserved population.
A Win-Win
Since its launch in October 2022, SwarajAbility has registered over 225,000 candidates with disabilities. Of these, 30% are graduates with nearly 90% being freshers. The portal has received 6,500 applications for 100,000+ vacancies from 2000+ companies.
Most applications are from candidates with Speech and Hearing Impairment, Locomotor Disability, and Low Vision. There are 100 plus candidates with Mental Illness, with Autism Spectrum Disorder, and 243 with Intellectual Disability. 30% of the registrants are women. This number is growing. MNCs and Indian public sector companies such as Amazon and BPCL have seen very high retention rates as PvDs, especially women, don’t easily migrate. They are preferred by the small and medium businesses too.
How long does it take to get them to become job ready
The whole process includes *Advocacy or changing mindsets of rural communities. Meera Shenoy, the Founder of SwarajAbility says: “Our household campaign has touched 15.9 million people. This includes informing them of government benefits and the message that there is “ability in disability”.
- Counselling youth with disabilities at the village level and giving them the “I Can” message by showing videos /working alumni in neighbouring villages sharing their experiences
- Enrolling into our one month 21st century skills training which includes English communication, soft and life skills, digital literacy, Chatgpt, and orientation to entry level jobs.
- Parent meeting to get community ownership and prevent dropouts
- Job matching through SwarajAbility which helps map and match geographic locations
- Post placement support for those trained by Y4J for 1 year
- Simultaneously, companies registered on SwarajAbility, reach out for services to create an inclusive eco-sphere like sensitisation workshop, sign language, accessibility audit, tech syncing etc. This ensures companies experience the business case of hiring from this new labour pool.
What does it cost to get one person to become job ready?
Ms. Snehoy says costs vary depending on whether training is residential or non- residential, the kind of disability, education levels. All training is free for youth with disabilities.
We train all 21 disabilities with special educators, sign language instructors and counsellors with disabilities. Since the work is market-led, 40% of our trainees are locomotors; 40% are speech and hearing impaired and the balance are low vision, visually impaired, autistic and with intellectual disabilities.
https://www.swarajability.org/
