The premier engineering college, the Indian Institute of Technology in Hyderabad (IIT-Hyderabad), has created "Swarajability", an artificial intelligence (AI)-based job platform for people with disabilities (PwDs), to help them seek opportunities in the tech sector.

The app, which is the first of its kind in India, was launched during a soft-launch event last week, by the Principal Scientific Adviser to the government of India, Prof K Vijay Raghavan. Kotak Mahindra Bank has funded the initiative while the AI component was led by IIT-Hyderabad in addition to app development by Visual Quest India. Youth4Jobs offered its experience in skilling, disability, and job linkages.

Swarajability will first analyse a registered person's available information - education, skills, goals - and suggest the available opportunities and/or the required training needed to ensure better opportunities that are tailored for the user. The platform is app and web-based to ensure that maximum people benefit from it.

An official highlighted the significance of rigorously testing technology in both the software and hardware sector among groups of people who need them before these innovations are scaled up by the industry. Furthermore, he added that it is important to remember the age-related subgroups of people with disabilities; children are a vulnerable group too and their disabilities should be considered.

In India, currently, there are 21 million persons with disabilities in India of whom over 70% are unemployed/underemployed. Swarajability is a step towards ensuring that the most vulnerable, like youth with disabilities, should have the necessary skills and opportunities to ensure that the country can meet its demographic dividend.

The platform supports NGOs, educational institutions, and governments in their efforts to promote diversity and inclusion.