Hyderabad: The Covid-19 pandemic has hit economies worldwide like never before and one big casualty of the recession that has followed has been ‘jobs’. The visuals of Indian migrant workers and daily wagerers leaving metro cities and walking back thousands of kilometres to their respective home states were a proof of the hopelessness about employment opportunities in urban areas.
Although, after the country entered the ‘Unlock’ mode, with manufacturing units and offices given permission to resume operations, employers are now facing a serious issue of labour shortage. To fill this supply-demand gap, 17-year-old Akshat Mittal has come up with an online platform called BharatShramik.in which will help employers find prospective employees based on area pin codes.
Bharatshramik.in, which went live on 20 June 2020, will mainly cater to blue-collar workers like construction labourer, factory workers, supervisors, security guards, household helpers, drivers, carpenters, plumbers, etc, for business or personal requirements. The platform provides a multilingual hotline number, +91 8822 022 022, which any worker can dial to register with his/her details.
Meanwhile, the employers can register on the online platform using some basic details like their organization’s name and contact details and then conduct a search for workers based on their skill requirements in a particular location.
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What differentiates Bharat Shramik from other job portals is that it is completely free of cost for both employers and employees as of now. Also, special focus has been kept on getting workers on board without the help of Internet, as most of these labourers lack the know-how to use online services. “We knew that worker registration has to be kept as simple as possible to make this social initiative a success,” said Mittal, adding: “We are also working with vernacular media outlets, NGOs and contractors to reach as many labourers as possible.”
Bharatshramik.in currently has over 21,000 workers and 446 employers registered on its portal. “What is heartening is that we have large construction firms and listed companies registered on our portal which create huge job opportunities for workers,” Mittal said. “We have been very happy with the response so far.”
But the portal is not earning any revenue yet. So how does Mittal plan to sustain it? “In future, there can be a lot of possibilities like subscription fees, advertisements etc,” he said. When asked whether he is open to acquisitions, like that of his previous venture Odd-even.com that was introduced at the time of Delhi’s odd even scheme and later bought by Orahi, he didn’t rule it out. “I haven’t thought about it, but nothing is off the table,” he quipped.
(ETV Bharat Report)
