Disabled man recruited through job mela

MYSORE: He was dependent on his father for almost 10 years. But today, Umesha K R who is deaf and dumb is independent and has been hired by a company. Rotary Mysore Midtown (RMM) and Enable India had organized 'Samartha', a job mela for disabled students at JSS Polytechnic College on Sunday. Nearly 250 people took part and 50 were recruited from 19 companies across Karnataka.Umesha who hails from Tumkur said: "I have been born deaf and dumb. I studied till PU and couldn't continue as we couldn't afford the fee. My father works in a small hotel. When I heard that Rotary and Enable were holding a job mela, I wanted to attend it. I am happy as I have been hired as a team member by café Coffee Day.''Cafe Coffee Day HR Pavan Simha R said "though Umesha was deaf and dumb, he was interested and sharp, therefore we hired him."Another candidate Rashmi S P from Davangere who has lost her right hand and right leg said: "I work with my left hand and it doesn't take much time. I have finished BE in computer science. I had gone for many interviews but was not selected as I am physically challenged. Now, I am confident that I will be selected here." Specvin Technologies (Mysore) CEO Sreevathsa S said "Rashmi was confident and her communication skills were good. We will recruit her as a junior software engineer".RMM president Bhanuchandran S said: "Our aim is to help them. I had seen many candidates whose intelligent quotient was excellent. This job mela will be held every year."Samartha Programme president M S Nanadakumar said this was the second time they were conducting the job mela. "We were inspired by Vinayak Company which offered them employment opportunity and wanted to conduct a similar job mela and we approached Enable India."Enable India co-founder Deepesh said when Rotary approached them, they joined them as this was a unique job mela.