Flipkart launches first ‘Ekartians with Disabilities’ delivery hub

Khevna.P.Shah, INN/Bangalore

@Shahkhevna1, @Infodeaofficial

Walmart owned Flipcart, has introduced an initiative for the development and well-being of the disabilities, eDAB program (Ekartians with Disabilities) in its supply chain in the year 2017.  It has recently added a new delivery hub in New Delhi to its supply chain network that will be managed end to end by fifty employers with disabilities, working across various capacities.

This initiative is taken by the company to break the stereotypes around the employability of people with disabilities and to help them support themselves through a fruitful job. It also creates awareness around the capabilities of the disabled community in the society as they manage this new portal and its working, making more than 1,100 deliveries each day.

Adding this new section has also helped Flipkart expand its employee workforce diversity initiative and today it has over 1,019 people with disabilities across its supply chain.

In contemporary society, people with disabilities are often degraded and treated with disrespect, they are often viewed as a burden to the community. It is perplexing for them to wander around hunting for jobs. This is a great initiative by Flipkart to provide a normal working environment for people with disabilities. It helps them earn their income and also respect in society. It also helps in normalizing the idea of employing people with disabilities.

Commenting on this development, Hemant Badri, Senior Vice-President and Head of Supply Chain at Flipkart, said, “Flipkart is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workforce and is at the forefront of leading the initiatives around inclusion and diversity in the e-commerce supply chain. As part of our continued efforts towards creating an inclusive workplace and assimilating people with disabilities into business operations, we are introducing our first delivery hub run end-to-end by people with disabilities in the capital of the country.”

“For communicating with customers, special badges and flashcards were designed for Wishmasters (delivery staff) so that customers become aware of their disabilities. For their safety, emergency (SOS) features are enabled on their smartphones and an emergency number is printed behind the flashcards,” the statement released by Flipcart added.

According to the company, it had undertaken an extensive study of the processes, roles, responsibilities, and expectations for employing people with disabilities to ensure seamless operations. These include sensitization sessions, special classroom training, and on-job training with the help of sign language interpreters and also to train new entrants and address their concerns.

Indian’s e-commerce marketplace, Flipkart said it understands the role of policies and processes that can help in not just hiring people with disabilities but also spread the importance of nurturing and creating an equitable environment for them for their growth.

In this endeavor, there was an extensive study of the processes, roles, responsibilities, and expectations for employing people with disabilities to ensure seamless operations.

This program is supported by sensitization sessions, special classroom training, and on-job training with the help of sign language interpreters and also to train new entrants and address their concerns, the statement said.

Last month, Indian e-commerce retailer, Flipkart opened a fulfilment centre in Dankuni, West Bengal which is the company’s second-largest fulfilment centre in the state. This center will support the online retailer in meeting increasing demand across India’s eastern region.

It has more than 220,000ft² of total floor space and currently, Flipkart has seven fulfilment centres in the state, covering one million square feet in total, as well as 152 delivery hubs.