April 9, 2019
Starting today, 9 April, families in four cities across India can look
forward to enjoying a Quiet Hour every Tuesday at select Big Bazaar stores.
Encouraged by the response to a pilot initiative across 16 stores on
World Autism Day this year, the retail giant will make this
a regular feature in four stores for three months.
The four stores are in Chandigarh, Kolkata, Pune and New Delhi. In
Chandigarh, the chosen Big Bazaar outlet is located at Elante
Mall at Purv Marg, in Kolkata, at Hiland Park in
Santoshpur, in Delhi, Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj and in Pune
at the Amnaora Mall at Hadapsar.
The hour earmarked is the opening hour at each of these stores, which varies
across these cities. Tuesdays was the obvious choice given the global trend.
The global trend is for Tuesdays to be set aside as Wuiet Hour. Besides
weekends tend to be very rushed and hectic with many shoppers so we decided
to go with Tuesday as well. By doing this we want to create awareness about
autism and provide comfort to shoppers. There are so many parents with
children on the spectrum who want to go shopping but hesitate as their
children get stared at. Big Bazaar is sabke liye and we want to open our
doors to everyone. We have sensitized the staff at these four stores. –
Pawan Sarda, Group Head, Digital, future Retail Group
Based on the feedback from parents’, Big Bazaar has plans to roll this out
in more cities, which is a great move, feels Dr Merry Barua,
Founder, Action for Autism, which has worked closely with
the retail group in making this happen.
“It helps families of course but also creates awareness among other
shoppers who come in. It gives visibility to people with autism and helps
others see that there are people like this in our society. And when a big
chain like Big Bazaar does this, it percolates down. When we rolled this out
in 16 cities earlier, we sensitized the staff and they in turn talked about
this with their families”, says Dr Barua.
Among the cities which hosted the pilot initiative is Kolkata, where the
Autism Society, West Bengal partnered with Big Bazaar.
Indrani Bagchi, a group member, says she was surprised by
the turnout and response from other shoppers.
“For families with children on the spectrum, this is a time where they can
go shopping without being stared at. We saw that the atmosphere was very
relaxed, the other shoppers present did not bat an eyelid”, says Bagchi.
“I think this is because the Big Bazaar staff was so calm and accepting and
that made a difference. This is a great idea especially during the Durga Pujo
and festival time when families want to able to shop with their kids”.
Apart from fostering inclusion, initiatives like these highlight the fact
that people with disabilities are independent customers, who wish to exercise
their rights economically too, adds Bagchi. “This is very empowering for
the community, especially people with autism because they don’t get to
choose and are seen as unable to choose.”
There are some concerns over the choice of Tuesday as this would leave many
parents out.
“Many parents have to go to work and kids to school”, says Veena
Singh, founder of the Rainbow Autism Centre in
Pune. “This is a good initiative for sure but the choice of day and time is
a little inconvenient. At 11 AM, parents cannot leave their offices to shop
and we saw this at the pilot launch in Pune, when many people couldn’t
come. I know it’s a global trend but I am not sure it works for India. One
suggestion is to do this on Saturdays or Sundays and perhaps the stores could
open an hour earlier on those days”.
These are smaller details that can be worked out based on feedback. But as a
statement towards inclusion, it is a powerful one, says Sangeeta
Jain, Vice Principal, Society for Rehabilitation of Mentally
Challenged (SOREM) in Chandigarh.
“This is one of the first ever initiatives taken to include people with
neuro-diverse needs in the community. Everyone talks about inclusion, however
action is completely missing. Big Bazaar will lead other organizations and
companies to take some steps for active participation in the community.
Everything starts small and the important thing is to start somewhere and
based on that learning we can build further on it”.
Source: https://newzhook.com/story/21906
