Employer Hires Women Who Are Victims of Acid Attacks and Visually Impaired at Travel Agency

(Photo courtesy of Akash Bhardwaj)

Entrepreneur Bhardwaj’s company is unique. It only hires people who are visually impaired, and similarly “disabled” persons. “They can’t see but they will help tourists see the world,” Akash Bhardwaj told The Economic Times.

It started when Bhardwaj encountered a 31-year-old woman, a former security guard, who was the victim of an acid attack. She had lost her job and had been left by her husband because of her appearance. “Who will employ a woman sacked because of a disfigured face?” she asked him.

That’s how Bhardwaj came up with the idea.

Photo courtesy of Akash Bhardwaj

“That was the day I decided to use my experience in the travel sector and start a social startup to help people like her,” Bhardwaj, CEO of Khaas travel agency, told Subculture. He also started hiring men who have been dismissed from jobs because of testing positive for HIV.

In Hindi, the word “khass” means “Someone or something that is special and different from normal, often in a way that makes them better or more important than other people or things,” per Collins Dictionary. That’s how Bhardwaj feels about his employees, who have all the necessary education and skills to be successful but aren’t given a chance by standard businesses.

Photo courtesy of Akash Bhardwaj

At Khaas, the visually impaired employees have been trained at high-tech solutions that allow them to do everything a sighted employee could. “I train the girls at using a screen reader software called JAWS (Job Access With Speech),” Bhardwaj said, “and now they are all skilled at Braille as well and have technical knowledge about travel packages, destinations, customizing trips.”

Unlike other travel agencies that simply resell third-party content and offers, Khaas creates its own itineraries for travelers. Customers are also informed about the business and its special staff.

“Our focus is on schools and colleges because the girls Google them and approach the principals, tell them about Khaas, generate interest, and organize student trips for them,” Bhardwaj says.

Photo courtesy of Akash Bhardwaj

Several of Khaas’s employees have advanced degrees and plenty of work experience—in addition to being working mothers. The challenges to making the company profitable have been numerous. To start with, Khaas can’t afford to use the top-of-the-line JAWS software developed in the United States, and the local version doesn’t work quite as well.

Finding an accessible ground-floor space has also been a challenge, while other people in the business community haven’t always been supportive.

“[T]he company we share the space with makes a big deal out of the ‘noise’ created by the walking sticks,” Bhardwaj says. Nevertheless, the company has already exceeded expectations.

Bhardwaj adds, “People told me that this won’t happen because it’s never been done in the world. That inspired me further to do it and prove a point that things are not always as they seem.”

Photo courtesy of Akash Bhardwaj

Working with the inspiring team of visually impaired professionals has also given Bhardwaj a new appreciation for his so-called “disabled” employees.

“They send emails, search anything on google, use smart phones, do all the social media for Khaas, and send Whatsapp updates to our clients!” Bhardwaj said. He cites an impressive example of how his employees’ “advantages” exceed the skills of “normal” people:

“Last year, the electricity went off and systems shut and I immediately stopped working. But they continued doing their work on Braille and didn’t even realize that the lights were gone. We are so reliant on technology that we are the disabled ones.”

Khaas also aims to branch into other areas of business, including a matchmaking portal for disabled people in India. “My dream is for India to be the place in the world where not even one disabled person is unemployed,” the idealistic entrepreneur says. “By 2020, Khaas wants to employ over 5000+ such visually impaired women, acid attack victims and HIV positive patients.”