Flipkart aims to make e-commerce more inclusive with its first ‘Ekartians with Disabilities’ delivery hub

Jul 29, 2021

Aimed to provide a nurturing and healthy workspace for people with disabilities

Flipkart today has over 1,019 people with disabilities across its supply chain, holding different positions including sorters, pickers, packers and delivery executives

Chennai - July 29, 2021: In continuation of its efforts towards creating a diverse and inclusive workplace and supply chain, Flipkart, India’s homegrown consumer internet ecosystem, is strengthening its diversity programs, which aims to proactively hire and include diverse talent across gender, ethnicity and people with disabilities in its workforce. As a part of this initiative, helping eDABs (eKartians with Disabilities) or people with disabilities find employment is part of Flipkart’s commitment to increase diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

To champion this change, Flipkart has added a new delivery hub in New Delhi to its supply chain network, which will be managed end-to-end by 50 employees with disabilities, working in various capacities, including delivery executives, cashiers and team leaders. Through this effort, Flipkart aims to break stereotypes around the employability of people with disabilities and create more awareness around the capabilities of the community as they manage the hub and its operations end-to-end, making more than 1,100 deliveries every day. This is a decisive step towards building an enabling working ecosystem for people with disabilities and assimilating them into business operations.

Structured Program for inclusion and assimilation:

Flipkart understands the role of policies and processes that can help in not just hiring people with disabilities but also the importance of nurturing and creating an equitable environment for them for their growth. In this endeavour, there was extensive study of the processes, roles, responsibilities and expectations for employing people with disabilities to ensure seamless operations.

This is supported by sensitization sessions, special classroom training and on-job training with the help of sign language interpreters and also to train new entrants and address their concerns

For communicating with customers, special badges and flashcards were designed for Wishmasters so that customers become aware of their disabilities. For their safety, emergency (“SOS”) features are enabled on their smartphones and an emergency number is printed behind the flashcards.

Culture of Community:

At Flipkart, we understand that building an inclusive work environment is a collective responsibility and a strong inclusion program that includes all employees can go a long way in its success. This includes

Assimilation and empathy training for ALL Flipkart employees

Necessary infrastructure design for making supply chain facilities accessible

Availability of interpreters for communication

Commenting on this development, Hemant Badri, Senior Vice-President and Head of Supply Chain at Flipkart, said, “Flipkart is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workforce and is at the forefront of leading the initiatives around inclusion and diversity in the e-commerce supply chain. As part of our continued efforts towards creating an inclusive workplace and assimilating people with disabilities into business operations, we are introducing our first delivery hub run end-to-end by people with disabilities in the capital of the country. We are hopeful the industry continues to take such efforts in building a more inclusive future.”

Flipkart introduced the eDAB program (Ekartians with Disabilities) in its supply chain in 2017, to provide career opportunities for people with disabilities in its supply chain. Through the eDAB initiative, Flipkart aims to build awareness around the capabilities of people with disabilities while helping the existing talent work closely with these capable individuals. Starting as a pilot, through this program, Flipkart today has over 1,019 people with disabilities across its supply chain.

About the Flipkart Group

The Flipkart Group is one of India's leading digital commerce entities and includes group companies Flipkart, Myntra, Flipkart Wholesale, and Cleartrip. The Group is also a majority shareholder in PhonePe, one of the leading Payments Apps in India.

Started in 2007, Flipkart has enabled millions of consumers, sellers, merchants, and small businesses to be a part of India's digital commerce revolution, with a registered customer base of more than 350 million, offering over 150 million products across 80+ categories. Our efforts to democratize commerce in India, drive access and affordability, delight customers, create lakhs of jobs in the ecosystem, and empower generations of entrepreneurs and MSMEs have inspired us to innovate on many industry firsts. Flipkart is known for pioneering services such as Cash on Delivery, No Cost EMI and easy returns – customer-centric innovations have made online shopping more accessible and affordable for millions of Indians. Together with its group companies, Flipkart is committed to transforming commerce in India through technology.

For more information, please contact media@flipkart.com