Can you earn your living without speaking to anyone? Well, Mirakle Couriers’ team of 55 delivery boys do not speak, much as they cannot hear. But they are perfectly empowered to be a part of society. Dhruv Lakra, Founder and CEO of Mirakle Couriers tells us more about sustainable income for deaf adults and his dream.

Dhruv Lakra, Founder & CEO, Mirakle Couriers

Q. How did you get the idea of empowering the deaf?

A. I was always keen on working on social impact. One day in a bus, a deaf boy sat next to me. I was amazed at how well he communicated- by writing on a pad. This got me thinking about how the deaf are perfectly normal except for the one disability. I did some research and realized that our country has the highest number of deaf adults in the world.

Q. Why a courier service?

A. In India, deaf people are usually segregated from society. They don’t get normal jobs; they do book binding or candle making that too only during festivals.

I wanted to change the perception & empower the deaf and help them earn on a sustainable basis. While thinking of areas where verbal communication is least required, the thought of a courier service struck me! When a delivery boy delivers mail, nobody speaks to him. We just sign and take the mail. In this, I saw this as a real business opportunity.

Q. How does Mirakle couriers work? What’s your business model?

A. It’s like any other courier company. We charge the client and have our cost structure in place. We cater to large corporates. Our field boys are all deaf adults and our back office is an all-girls team. Our supervisors are women who are into accounting, tracking and more.

When I started in December 2008, we were just two – one delivery boy and me. But now there are 55 people in the set-up. Our office is only in Mumbai but we deliver across the globe.

Q. Do you tell your clients that your delivery boys are deaf adults?

A. Yes, because I think people should change their perception about the deaf, and their ability to perform. And if something goes wrong, just as things go wrong in regular businesses, then the client should not turn back and say he was unaware that the deliveries were made by deaf adults.

Mirakle's Office team

Q. You have done a lot to empower the deaf adult community. How tough was it to put it into practice?

A. These boys are not educated and are poor readers. A new boy has to get familiar with the delivery area.  We can’t give him an area map and ask him to get going. Usually we send the new boy with a trained one. We observe how he interacts with customers and slowly he goes on his own.

When we began, most clients gave us their unimportant materials. They didn’t trust us with time sensitive or critical stuff. After a while, we shared the statistics that 99 out of 100 mails were delivered properly. That’s when things started changing.

Q. What were the difficulties you faced along the way and how did you sort them?

A. One time, all the delivery boys in a certain area went on holiday as a common friend was getting married. We could not depute new boys as it takes him time to learn the area. From then on we trained every boy to deliver in two areas.

The Team

Q. What support do you seek to take the initiative to the next level?

A. I think we need an increase in volumes and more infrastructure, which we are working on.

Read more about a day in the life of the Mirakle courier boy at their official blog http://miraklecouriers.wordpress.com/ or check out their website to know more about the company www.miraklecouriers.com