Lemon Tree Hotels, India's largest chain of upscale hotels and resorts was recently conferred with the prestigious National Award 2011 for 'Best Employer - Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities' by the Ministry of Social Justice And Empowerment.

Mr. Davander Singh Tomar, Senior Vice President-Security, Administration & People, Lemon Tree Hotelsreceived the award from Shri Mukul Wasnik, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment at a ceremony held to mark the International Day of Persons with Disabilities at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. Introduced in 1969 by the government of India, the national award comprises Rs. 50,000 in cash, a shield, a citation and a certificate. 

Speaking about receiving the award, Rahul Pandit, President & COO, Lemon Tree Hotels said, "Lemon Tree Hotels has always believed in being an equal opportunity employer and this award reinforces our resolve to continue to bring differently abled employees on board. Currently Lemon Tree Hotels employs 111 differently abled employees and intends to take this number to more than 300 i.e. 10% of our staff strength by 2013." 

As part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) program, Lemon Tree Hotels prides itself on its commitment to provide employment to those who are differently abled. The company decided, in its early stages, to put into practice this belief and focused on providing equal employment opportunities to differently-abled people.

All differently-abled employees are speech and hearing impaired. Currently there are 111 differently-abled employees across 15 properties i.e. 3.5% of the total employee strength. Lemon Tree intends to increase this to 10% by 2012-2013 i.e. to about 300 employees. All differently-abled employees are trained to perform at par with other employees.

This enables them to not only take care of themselves but also to support their families. Initially these differently-abled employees were assigned to back-of-the-house areas such as Housekeeping, Kitchen and Laundry. However, this year some of them have been moved to front-of-the-house areas and have been  put through comprehensive guest contact training. They are now a seamless part of the front end team.

Empowerment of persons with disabilities is an inter-disciplinary process, covering various aspects namely, prevention, early detection, intervention, education, vocational training, rehabilitation and social integration etc. Apart from resources, it requires dedicated efforts of persons and institutions involved in the process of empowerment.

In order to recognize their effort and encourage others to strive to achieve excellence in this field, separate awards were presented to the best employees/self-employed with disabilities, best employers, best placement agency/officer, outstanding individuals, outstanding institutions, role models, outstanding creative disabled individuals and for best applied research/innovation/product development aimed at improving the life of persons with disabilities.