Millions of job-seeking blue-collar workers—drivers, security guards, housekeepers, etc.—rely largely on word-of-mouth referrals. Their wages are unregulated and opportunities are limited because established companies have a difficult time hiring and retaining migrant workers.
Venkatesh, a native of Ramanagara district in Karnataka, found himself with the responsibility of caring for his immediate family as his father was bedridden due to an accident. Forced to seek work in larger cities he found BetterPlace—an online employment aggregator that connects blue-collar workers such to work and training opportunities in local languages—and moved to Bengaluru and worked with Zomato as a delivery executive, enabling him to earn a monthly income of USD ~$200 (INR 15–18K per month). However, the cost of living in Bengaluru did not allow him to save enough to support his family back home. Thus, Venkatesh decided to return to Ramanagara and find employment closer to home.
This time Venkatesh had to acquire a new set of skills for the industrial work, so he used, ASEEM (Aatamanirbhar Skilled Employee Employer Mapping)—an AI-based portal developed by the National Skill Development Corporation in conjunction with BetterPlace to help upskill workers and connect them to employers—to find a relatively well-paying job in an auto-ancillary unit in Ramanagara. With his disposable income increasing by USD ~$180 (INR 13–14K) per month, life was finally moving in the right direction.
BetterPlace is currently onboarding more than 150K individuals like Venkatesh every month and is well on its way to meeting its goal of serving 2K enterprises and a 3M workforce by the end of this financial year (2020–21). As the disconnect between demand and supply of workers in India is bridged, their lives will stabilize and their dreams will be realized.
