Jaipur cafés hiring differently-abled as chefs and waiters

Cafes run wholly and solely by people with disabilities are now becoming a trend in Pink City. These restaurants have unique and interesting ways in which the customers can interact with the special employees.

A franchise from Nathdwara, Thadiwala, which hires only hearing and speech impaired female employees, has started its outlet in Vaishali Nagar.

Every employee, including the chef and the cashier, are physically challenged here.“We have set up light bulbs on the tables which are connected to our kitchen. So, whenever a customer takes a table or is ready to order, he can just press a button and the staff will come. A notebook is then given to the customer for writing the order from the menu,” said Neha Parikh, co-owner, Thadiwala.

This apart, some other hotels too are open to hire and train hearing and speech impaired people. Red Fox, for example, has a policy of hiring 20 per cent of their staff as physically challenged.

“We have 18-20 employees in Jaipur who cannot hear and speak. They are trained to work in various departments like housekeeping and food and drinks,” said Vivek Kumar, general manager, Red Fox.

Similarly Vitthal’s Kitchen, a cafe near Lakshmi Mandir, has six serving employees who are speech and hearing impaired. The restaurant has code numbers written opposite the food names in the menu.

The customer is given a note book where they have to mention the code number along with the quantity.

“As far as the interaction between each other is concerned, they themselves taught us the sign language when they joined us,” said Ashish Sharma, owner, Vitthal’s Kitchen.

However, these employees do not get proper career and salary growth as the regular employees, working with them, rues Kamlesh, a translator at Poddar Institute of Deaf and Dumb.

“In restaurants, sometimes the customers underestimate the skills of these special people. Often in hotels, they get mistreated by their peer due to their disability. Some are even blamed for theft by the co-workers. This often degrades their confidence,” says Kamlesh.