Tata Steel dedicates a centre to Persons with Disabilities in Jamshedpur

Jamshedpur, March 21: Taking forward the people-oriented culture of diversity and inclusion, Tata Steel Foundation inaugurated the Sabal ecosystem here at Jamshedpur today. Launched as a centre at Sakchi, Sabal will work towards making Jamshedpur a more empathetic, accessible and equitable city for Persons with Disability along with bringing the disability ecosystem together for the entire district combining outreach with the physical centre.

The centre, started with support from Jamshedpur Continuous Annealing and Processing Company Private Limited (JCAPCPL), will offer various courses including training for trainers’ programme, disability awareness workshops, digital literacy programme, career awareness workshops, foundation course in computer and similar need-based initiatives to enhance the employability potential of the person. These apart, initiating dialogue through extensive sensitization practices and systematically promote inclusion as a precondition for sustainable and equitable development will form the focus areas.

Dignitaries including Atrayee Sanyal, VP, HRM, Tata Steel, Chanakya Chaudhary, VP, Corporate Services, Tata Steel, Ujjal Chakraborti, MD, JCAPCPL, Rakeshwar Pandey, President, Tata Workers’ Union, TSRDS and TCS, and Sourav Roy, Chief, Corporate Social Responsibility, Tata Steel among others were present on the occasion.

With an aim to leverage state-of-the-art technological solutions to address disability issues, a Sabal mobile application will be launched soon. The app will monitor multiple indices to eventually ensure that all persons with disability is accessing their rightful public entitlements.  

“Sabal, in keeping with our mission to stand by excluded group, recognizes that 3 out of 4 persons with disability are in rural areas of India with the accompanying access and sociological challenges whereas the solutioning in the space is predominantly urban. Bridging this gap within the larger ambit of disability is the raison d’etre of Sabal and feeds into various elements. In the days to come, we look forward to Jamshedpur emerging as the sought-after, PWD -friendly space in the country,” said Sourav Roy, Chief, Corporate Social Responsibility, Tata Steel.

Tata Steel Foundation initiated Sabal in 2017 with an aim to create a platform for Persons with Disability through a participative atmosphere and inclusive infrastructure that enables skilling, employability and financial independence. The first such centre was started in Noamundi in 2017 followed by another centre in Sukinda last December with a network of partners / volunteers to skill, sensitize and empower more than 5000 people every year. 

Developing empathetic ecosystem for PWD access to welfare schemes through certification for all the identified PWDs, availability of aid-appliances with mobility training for all the identified PWDs and helping generate dignified livelihood through training programs are other objectives that the centre will work towards. With the Foundation’s commitment being to stand by the excluded communities, Sabal aims to garner initiatives and good practices that promotes accessibility and disability inclusion in urban environments and simultaneously reaching out to PWDs in the remotest parts of the state facing sociological challenges.