The COVID19 Crisis has forced millions of migrants to cross state borders on foot resulting into missing out their identification data.  Now, most industrial firms are operating at less than half capacity, the overall shortfall estimated to be between 40% and 50% over the next few months, due to being unable to connect to these workers who contribute to almost 10% of the GDP.

Lets follow the journey of Ram & how he establishes his identity in this worker ecosystem:

Unskilled laborers like Ram suffer from inaccessible data to welfare schemes or misinformation primarily due to their low literacy rates and lack of a tangible identification token. As per the data 62% are unaware of emergency welfare schemes & 37% don’t even know how to access the existing schemes.

The proposed solution is called ‘Mazdur Pehchan Pranali’, or worker identification system, which is a centralized multi-tech system which makes employment and support schemes accessible to unskilled migrants.

Currently, people like Ram rely on word-of-mouth and end up being exploited by employers with low labor wages and inhuman work conditions.

The IVR Service provided by Mazdur Pehchan Pranali registers first time users with inbuilt vernacular language support and using pincode, ration card number and phone number for quick verification. For the migrants who do not have a ration card, the process of getting one can be facilitated within our IVR service.

Some isolated data sets are accessible on National Skills Registry, attempts at migrant mapping by State govts post May, an old 2011 census which estimates around 122m migration and also on some telecom databases. A lot of data duplicacy can be there in existing data sets as well as about 80-90% migrants are still not registered on formal portals. The solution attempts to correct and unify that and build it further by our approach. Another issue with existing systems is about the inability to track migrants due to their erratic movements which gets addressed by our multi-location accessibility approach.

Once registered or if pre-existing in State or NSR Registry, the migrant can access our Whatsapp Push notification service for regular information on govt schemes and apply to a new job opportunity on a first come first serve basis.

Web based Employer Dashboards retrieve this information from IVR and send a proof of allotment as a message which becomes a record for him in case of any future discrepancy. Success is measured via the Data analytics created by the data fetched by IVR service which is being used by migrant workers as well data fetched by the employers Web Based portal.

Outreach processes are primarily to be facilitated by Gram Panchayats and funded in PPP mode supplemented with community events for relationship building. We have identified Aajeevika Bureau and proposed them to be a key partner in this facilitation process due to their extensive on-ground experience and Government linkages.

Aajeevika Bureau’s migrant support services amongst the largest Indian migrant support programmes covering 5 source blocks and 4 destinations of Gujarat and Rajasthan. Its direct membership was nearly 20,000 with plans to reach 50,000 by the end of 2010 as per old data sources. 

The aim is to create a Value chain of benefits across stakeholders for a more sustainable and long lasting impact. Our main source of funding will be companies, targetted based on Revenue and % of demand of Migrant workers. We’ll charge a subscription fee which gives them access to monetization services built by us over SMS and WhatsApp. Besides the tangible benefit in terms of access to labor, upscaling, and marketing touchpoints, we’ll promote their engagement with us as “Social Responsibility Activation”, entitling them to our “Social Certification” that can benefit not only the Brand positioning but also can be reflected in the business growth and continuity.

Through this we hope to give Ram and his family their share of smiles and recognition as opposed to the current neglect they face in the worker ecosystem.