Kozhikode: A Kerala-based start-up has been identified as a company encouraging inclusion by the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), a non-governmental trade association focusing on IT industry. The NASSCOM selected Codelattice, a start-up functioning in Hilite Business Park in Kozhikode, as one among the 17 companies that promote diversity and inclusion.

Codelattice was included in a study report of NASSCOM regarding diversity, equality and inclusion in employment sector. The list of 17 companies include multinational corporations like Infosys, Wipro, Barclays, Verizon and IBM.

Codelattice employed five physically challenged persons during the lockdown in 2020. They were placed in sales wing of the company. Two of them later quit the job. But the remaining three, two men and a woman, are still working from home for the company.

Codelattice co-founder and managing director Vijith Sivadasan from Kozhikode said that only multinational companies give opportunities to physically challenged people fearing financial liabilities. But, we didn't feel so. Employing them only benefitted the company, he added.

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Photo: Codelattice
Photo: Codelattice

The company aims at improving diversity of staff. We provide proper training and immense support to physically challenged employees recognizing their difficulties because they also face mental stress. The newly appointed employees are equally skilled as other staff, Vijith said.

The physically challenged staff need not come to the office. They can work from home permanently. As the next phase of diversification of workforce, the company plans to recruit people belonging to LGBTQ community.

Currently, 42 percent of the employees and 70 percent of the management staff in the company are women. Codelattice was founded by Kozhikode natives Vijith Sivadasan, Aksal Balakrishnan and Nipun Balan Thekkummal in 2009.