I have been guilty of stereotypes …
Expecting social entreprneurs to be soft spoken, kurta and jhola
attired
Thinking its ok to “feel sorry for” and “help” the disabled
Today’s experience shattered all these stereotypes …
I run a program for kids 11-18, called YEA to teach them entrepreneurship and
we had Dhruv Lakra as a speaker this morning. He runs Mirakle Couriers, a for
profit delivery service that employs deaf adults.
Was he soft spoken and with a jhola ? absolutely not ….smart,
savvy and direct “if anyone looks at their cell phone while I am speaking, I
will take it and smash it ” are his words prior to the talk
“ the differently abled don’t need your ladoos, they need you to give
them jobs”
“don’t feel sorry for them, give them respect and treat them as
equals”
these words will stay forever with me and hopefully our kids who
heard him today …….
Banker at Merrill Lynch, Skoll Scholar at Oxford turned social
entrepreneur, Dhruv Lakra doesn’t believe in NGO/ charity being sustainable in
the long run. He started a for profit company Mirakle Couriers to make a more
permanent and sustaianble impact for the deaf adults. While travelling in a
bus, Dhruv found a deaf boy sitting a few seats away from him and noticed the
difficulty the boy was having communicating with the conductor. This was the
trigger, the inspiration which started Mirakle Couriers. Today he employes 55
deaf adults for 2000 deliveries a day serving 45 clients !
3 examples which demonstrate few of many challenges he faces
every single day …
He told us about one female customer who threatened to shut
down his business as she thought that
the delivery boy was giving her a flying kiss when all he was doing was saying
thank you in sign language, ignorant…
Secretary of a society expected his delivery boy to climb 5
floors with 14 kg of packages as delivery boys were not allowed to use the
building elevators, inhuman …
Clients expect discounts compared to other delivery services as
they assume that Dhruv gets work done for free from the deaf, insensitive …
Please learn more about this enterprise at -
Few facts we all must know and share
1.
Four out of 1,000 children in India are born deaf.
2.
Alexander Graham Bell, whose own mother and wife were deaf,
invented the telephone.
3.
Thomas Edison, the inventor of electricity was deaf.
4.
Famous German composer and pianist, Beethoven’s hearing began to
deteriorate in his twenties. Even after he became completely deaf, he continued
to compose music.
5.
September 26 is recognized as the “Day of the Deaf” in India.
Today Dhruv certainly changed the way 25 kids at Cathedral, 4
YEA teachers and I think about the differently abled, especially the deaf, the
most invisible voiceless disability in India.
We wish Dhruv the very best in his entrepreneurial journey and
in his quest to create a brand that is known for its service and efficiency and
not just social impact!
