One Last Post

Hi Everyone!

After 6 amazing weeks in Mysore and 2 weeks of intense traveling in North India, I have made it home to D.C. Leaving India was hard; after two months I feel I barely even scratched the surface of all there is to learn in such a huge country. Still, it feels good to be home for a bit before heading back to school, and I’m certainly taking advantage of some down time.

During my last week in Mysore, I worked to finish my report and then gave a final presentation to the other Cornell students, my mentor, so of the graduate students at V-LEAD, and other SVYM staff. During my presentation I focused on the work I’d been doing, specifically highlighting what I had learned from the two companies I interviewed with.

I learned a lot from the two companies, specifically about the important roles of technology in providing accommodations for people with disabilities. I also got to see the importance of support from the leadership team in developing inclusive environment, which definitely helped me better understand why some companies are more successful than others in implementing equal opportunity policies.

I hope that my work at GRAAM will be meaningful as they take the interview framework I created and use it to analyze other companies. I learned an incredible amount from working at the organization, and I am extremely grateful that SVYM, GRAAM, and EDI provided me with the opportunity to participate.

From here, I hope to take my understanding of some of the key issues in employment for people with disabilities in corporate settings and apply that in different settings. I don’t know where that will take me, but I look forward to figuring out!

Have a great last few weeks of summer!

Abigail

A Busy Week, but a Great One

Hi again!

This week was busy, exhausting, and incredible. Be warned, this is a long post, and I definitely dropped the ball on taking photos this week, so my apologies.

On Tuesday, I headed to Bangalore to meet with a team at Cisco, an IT company headquartered in San Jose, CA but with its second global headquarters in Bangalore. The day started at 5 am with a train ride to the city, which was in itself an experience. It was a nice change of pace from the typical modes of transportation, and it was great to see the people who ride trains into the city...at 5 am, nonetheless.

When we arrived in Bangalore we drove to the Cisco headquarters and met with HR representatives, leaders of the Cisco Disability Awareness Network (CDAN), and employees with disabilities to get a full perspectives on Cisco's best practices in employing people with disabilities. Throughout the visit, I was increasingly impressed with Cisco's commitment to this initiative; Among other things, their efforts to make all of their technology accessible, their support of innovation in this area, and their willingness to continue adapting and changes their policies and practices as the company grows indicate a long-term commitment to creating an inclusive and productive environment for employees with disabilities.

I also got to tour the campus, which is currently 6 buildings holding about 6000 employees and quickly growing. Their office space was, honestly, beautiful, and they've clearly very successful at introducing open work spaces and promoting break spaces. Here is a picture (not my best) of one of these break spaces.

Beautiful break space at Cisco

We took the train back, and at the end of such a long day I crashed pretty hard. Wednesday was spent transcribing the interviews, and then on Thursday, I turned around and did it again, this time headed to Bangalore to meet with a similar group of people at Wipro, and Indian IT consulting firm. We hopped on the train at a much more reasonable time, arriving at the company around 3 pm. Similar to Cisco, I was amazed by Wipro's commitment to employing people with disabilities. Their emphasis on creating a career for people with disabilities, not just hiring them, was striking, and each employee that I spoke to addressed this as one of Wipro's many strengths in employing people with disabilities.

Inside of the train

Each visit was amazing in its own way, and a few patterns stuck out to me in terms of these companies' efforts to be equal opportunity employers. The first was both companies' impressive use of technologies that they were largely developing internally to make their workplaces accessible. This reliance on technology suggests to me that companies who are looking to improve their practices should increasingly be looking to technology to support them in that. Another thing both companies mentioned was their difficulty in finding enough people to employ. This definitely raises the question of what training needs to be provided in school, and in fact Wipro is now using Wipro Cares, their CSR initiative, to provide that education to young students in the hope that they can ensure these students get the training they need.

Train station

That's all for now! I can't believe this is the last week... where did the time go?!?!

Have a great week!

Halfway Point

Hey Everyone!

With 4 weeks behind me and 4 weeks ahead (including 2 weeks of traveling), I have officially reached the halfway point of my time in India. I can't believe it!

This week I settled into my project and made a lot of progress preparing for my interviews, which I will be conducting this week. I explored guidelines that dictate typical employer practices in India and prepared a set of questions for the interviews that should be helpful in compiling the information for my case studies. Here are a few (less-than-ideal) photos of GRAAM:

One of the other ILRies on this trip, Jack, is doing a project on child labor and kids with disabilities, so this week it's been really interesting to look at our projects as they relate to each other. We've been looking at options for vocational training in Mysore, which seem to be effective. We also have started to realize that parents can be reluctant to keep their kids with disabilities in school or are unable to provide them with sufficient support. Connecting that to my project, I've been able to consider how this contributes to the preparedness of people with disabilities to enter the labor force. Learning about Jack's project continues to remind me that the challenges associated with employing people with disabilities don't always begin when a person is seeking a job.

Outside of work, we continued to explore the city of Mysore and gained more confidence in navigating, interacting with people, and trying more and more street food. We finally had the chance to walk along the lake near the hostel, which is sort of randomly placed but is nice to walk along after a long day in the office. Again, pictures:

The Lake!

Downtown Mysore

Sale on the side of the road

I will be completing my interviews this week! I'm so excited to meet with these companies to learn about their policies and practices, and I'll update later this week to share some of my experiences.

Have a great week!

Abigail

First Week at GRAAM!

Hi!

Again, I can't believe it's been a week since I last posted. Time is moving so fast; I have to keep reminding myself to stop and enjoy this amazing experience.

This week, I started working at the Grassroots Research and Advocacy Movement (GRAAM) and officially got started on my project. On Monday, Arun and David, members of the EDI team, arrived at GRAAM for a few days, and I was grateful for their support, along with that of my mentor, in starting my project.

My project has two parts. The first part, which I am working on now, is compiling profiles of a handful of large companies in India regarding their policies and practices in making their workplaces inclusive of people with disabilities. The second element, which I hope to begin this week, will be completing in-depth case studies with companies to get a deeper sense of how they have succeeded in employing people with disabilities. My goal with these case studies is to develop a framework of strategies, barriers, motivating factors, and other elements of employment.

I'm extremely excited to be able to look at this topic at such a deep level; already I've started to be able to see patterns across companies in their efforts to employ people with disabilities as well as to get a look at government policies in promoting these inclusive workplaces. I am excited for the weeks ahead at GRAAM!

Outside of work, I'm really enjoying getting to know the city of Mysore; spending a lot of time in one place is not an experience I've ever really had while traveling before. This week, we went to Karanji Lake, a beautiful lake surrounded by a huge park, and we also spent a good amount of time just wandering around downtown, something we hadn't had a chance to do yet.

View of Karanji Lake from above. 

Monkeys at the park!

This morning (last thing, I promise) we went to Mysore Palace at 6 am to join in the celebration of National Yoga Day. It was an experience, to say the least. It is now monsoon season, so we definitely got wet. Still, we were there with maybe 4,000 people from all over Mysore and the surrounding areas, doing yoga while the royal family sat on the balcony and watched.

Speaks for itself

Yoga at the palace!!!

It's funny, I think I definitely perceived India as a pretty chaotic place before I came here. I can't say that my perception of that has totally changed, but this morning, there were thousands of people in straight lines, praying in unison and practicing yoga in complete silence. There was little security, little direction, little organization, but it worked. Honestly, it was striking.

Ok, I promised, so I will stop here. Also, I must apologize because I forgot to take pictures of GRAAM...I'll post them next week (this is how I keep my readership up).

Have a great week!

Abigail

Time is Definitely Flying

I'm back!

What a week it's been!! I can't believe my time in Mysore is already 1/3 over, there's still so much to do!!

This week, we finished up classes and had the opportunity to go on a few field visits to see tangible examples of the laws and practices we've been learning about. We also had a little bit of time to venture out into the city, which was great.

On Monday evening, we went to a wedding. It was a great opportunity to see a South Indian wedding and the traditions involved in that. We greeted the bride and groom and then enjoyed an amazing meal, during which we got to speak with a lot of the guests and practice our minimal Kannada skills with a lot of people.

Sarees for the wedding!

Tuesday, we went to Shakti Dhama, a women's rehabilitation center that provides temporary safety for women escaping abuse and provides vocational training for women so that they can exist independently of their families, if they wish. This visit sparked a lot of conversation in the group about women's rights in both India and the U.S, and how policies and efforts in that realm are similar and different; overall it was a really good exercise in comparing ideologies across cultures.

Wednesday we visited the TVS Motor Company, which is the leading two-wheeler manufacturer in India. We were able to see an example of complete compliance with Indian labor laws at this company, which was a great opportunity to understand the laws as they stand and how they've changed over the past few years. At night, one of our professors invited us for dinner at a golf club in Mysore, which was an awesome opportunity to speak with him and other professors at SVYM in a more informal setting.

A picture of delicious food at the Hostel to break up all of the words in this post

We finished classes on Thursday, and on Friday we went to Excelsoft, a software company based here in Mysore. This visit was definitely one of the highlights of the week; we got a sense of the organization's culture and training processes and toured the amazing facilities. Additionally, the HR and training directors answered a lot of my questions about their efforts to hire people with disabilities, especially their efforts to create a more inclusive workforce. They mentioned an organization called EnAble India, that works to provide supplemental training to people with disabilities and assists in job placement; Excelsoft partners with them as a potential employer.  I hope to learn more about this organization and others like it during my project.

Today and tomorrow are free days, and we're enjoying our first real free time in the city by exploring!
Pictures from our wandering:

So much fruit! 

Hot Peppers!

We'll start our projects on Monday...can't wait!


Until next time,
Abigail

The End of Week 1

Hi Again!

Since I last posted on Wednesday, we've done so much I'm not quite sure where to begin. It's been exhausting, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I guess I'll start with Thursday and go from there.

We had another day of classes at SVYM on Thursday. So far, we've learned a lot about the labor and employment situation in India in addition to general information about the social/political/economic situation. I can't believe how much I've learned in just a week, and it's been great to have the opportunity to sit and listen without the pressure of a grade at the end. On Thursday night we watched a dance performance at SVYM, where we got to see performances of traditional dances of both Karnataka and Southern India in general.

On Friday we had the opportunity to see the SVYM field projects, each different but equally interesting and exciting to see. The first we visited was the tribal hospital and school at Saragur. There, we toured the hospital and learned a lot about administration of care and how it relates to the population it serves. I realized I know very little about not only Indian health care but also American....but fortunately we were there with the global health students from Cornell who were more than willing to answer my questions.

Hospital at Saragur

School at Saragur

The next site, the tribal school and teachers training college at Hosahalli, allowed us to learn about the current economic situations of tribal families as we discussed why the children want to receive a quality education. We also got to speak to the girls in the teacher training program, and even planted flowers with them in honor of earth day.
Finally, we visited the tribal hospital at Kenchanahalli, where we learned about ayurvedic, or more traditional, practice of medicine.
So that was a long, but amazing, day.

On Saturday (I'm sorry I promise I'm trying to keep this brief but there's so much to tell!) we had class again. In the afternoon we had a small session with Dr. Balu, the founder of SVYM, and had the chance to ask any questions. This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip so far, as we got to learn more about SVYM as an organization, the population it serves, and its goals for the future.

Today (Sunday) we went to an elephant camp in the morning and then to a coffee plantation to get a more tangible perspective on the labor standards and issues we've been learning about. In addition to the very nice family who opened their incredibly beautiful house to us, we got a chance to tour the plantation and learn about their workers. It was really interesting, and definitely put our previous lectures into context.

Who doesn't love elephants?

Coffee plantation

We ended the day at the Golden Temple, an active Buddhist monastery. We learned that the monks are from tibet, and that in fact there are 3 large groups of monks from Tibet in Karnataka. It was a really cool place to see.

At the monastery

Inside the Golden Temple

This week we'll finish up classes, including more visits to different places that will hopefully allow us to see more of what we're learning in the actual workplace. Thanks for sticking with me to the end of this post!!

Have a good week,
Abigail

Breathtaking Views (Literally)

Hey there!

Yesterday we visited Shravanabelagola and Belur, two different cities outside of Mysore but still in the state of Karnataka. Both sides were insanely beautiful and interesting. This post will mostly be pictures, but I'll include some of the many, many things we learned.

We started the day at Shravanabelagola, which is a city in Karnataka. It is a pilgrimage location in Jainism, and the statue at the top of the large hill depicts Gommateshvara Bahubali, who is traditionally considered the father of Jainism. 

View from the bottom of the 660 stairs we climbed to reach the top

Panoramic View

Looking out at the amazing view from the top

The statue at Shravanabelgola

After that, we departed for Belur. Here are a few pictures of the towns we passed through on the way there.

Belur is home to the Chennakesava Temple, which is a Hindu Temple. The most impressive element of it is the incredibly detailed exterior, which depicts countless goddesses carved into the soapstone. Again, pictures:

The front of the temple, all carved from one rock.

That's it for now! 

Abigail

Adjusting to the Spice

Hello Everyone!

As promised, here’s a bit on my first few days in India, although already we’ve done so much I feel like I’ve been here much longer than that. The whole group arrived safely here in Mysore on Friday morning, and we’ve been settling in nicely since then.

The first order of business on Friday was to go shopping for the appropriate attire for our stay here (pictures definitely will speak for me on this one). Other than that, we got our first view of the city, ate our first meals (spicy, but so good!...we’re getting used to the flavors too) at the hostel, and got a quick glance of SVYM. We also all experienced the extreme exhaustion that comes with such a long trip.

A scene from the road in Hebbal, Mysore, which is the neighborhood near our Hostel

On Saturday we had our orientation, which began with a very nice ceremony welcoming us to SVYM. After a tour of the campus, we participated in a lamp-lighting ceremony and listened to words about SVYM’s mission as an organization. This part was especially interesting to me as Madame Sindhu, our program coordinator, stressed that India is at a “critical juncture” and that SVYM aims to catalyze India’s development through the growth of human capital. Not only does this mission statement resonate with me, but it also provides me with a deeper context for the reason for my project.

Today the group toured Mysore, and this was truly an amazing experience. We started the day at the Mysore palace, where we learned not only the royal history of the city but also the city’s relationship with the British and how it gained independence. The palace was BEAUTIFUL, so beautiful in fact that we went back at night to see it lit up. Again, pictures will do it more justice than I can with words.

The front of the palace during daytime

A group of us in front of the palace, which is only lit up on Sunday nights. 

We also visited St. Philomena’s church and Chamundi Hill, at the top of which is a beautiful temple. We watched an offering ceremony inside the temple and took advantage of the spectacular views of Mysore from outside.

The temple at Chamundi Hill

Before I sign off, I want to mention an observation/thought (among many) I’ve had over the first few days: why the sharp divide between wealth and poverty?  I noticed it driving through Bangalore on the way to Mysore and also a little bit here. I don’t know the answer, but through the newer presence big industries, like Infosys in Mysore, my thoughts turn to the need for high-skilled labor and the apparent lack of it.  Does training in particular industries contribute to wealth? Are there other avenues for upward mobility? I’m sure there are tons of answers to this question, and I definitely hope to explore them in classes (which start tomorrow!) these first two weeks.

Ok, that’s all for now!

All the best,

Abigail

Quick Introduction

Hi Everyone!

This is the blog I'll be keeping during my 6-week trip this summer. I can't believe I'll be leaving just two weeks!!

I'll introduce myself for now so that I can jump right in when I arrive in India.

I am finishing up my freshman year right now so  I'll be a rising sophomore this summer. I am in ILR, and am considering minors in business and law and society. Or something else...who knows. Outside of school, I love traveling, exercising, reading, and photography, among other things.

I'm unbelievably excited for my trip this summer. I hope to learn about policy and practice in India in terms of employing persons with disabilities, and I hope to contribute to the project assigned to me.

I'll update again once I arrive in India.

Best,
Abigail