[LST] TrueProfile a LinkedIn for Domestic Workers in India - India Real Time - WSJ

http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2013/06/02/a-linkedin-for-domestic-workers/tab/print/


June 2, 2013, 9:00 AM IST
A LinkedIn for Domestic Workers
ByJoanna Sugden


Joanna Sugden/The Wall Street Journal
Ram Prasad, a domestic worker in New Delhi.
When Ram Prasad, a domestic worker from New Delhi, was moving house and changing jobs last year, he lost the bag containing his references from former employers.

The documents were all the evidence he had of almost 20 years looking after the homes and children of expats living in India's capital, a sought after job among domestic workers.

"Foreign people pay more than Indian people and I like working for them," Mr. Prasad, 40, said on a recent afternoon.

But without references, when he came to look for a job in Vasant Vihar, the upmarket residential area of Delhi populated with diplomats and foreign business people, the residents turned him away.

"One madam said she would only accept certificates from foreigners," Mr. Prasad said.

His previous employers had moved on and not left a forwarding address or way to get in contact.

Lack of official documentation is a problem for many of India's estimated 4.2 million domestic workers (by government figures) and army of ancillary staff who work in the informal sector, or shadow economy, without resumes and proof of their credentials.

It's a problem that two American businessmen – who made their money in legal outsourcing to India – are setting out to fix.

"We want to get people on the grid in a way that to date they are not," says Sanjay Kamlani, co-founder of TrueProfile, a LinkedIn-style online platform for domestic workers, drivers and office boys who serve homes and businesses in India.

"They have no resume, so this will give them a chance to document electronically how they have performed," says Mr. Kamlani.

It will also enable employers to verify their employees' background, he added.

In India many people find work by going house to house, asking if their services are required as gardeners, maids, cleaners or drivers. Often they end up working for more than one household.

"Demand for domestic workers is increasing but the system of recruitment is very informal and there is a huge suspicion attached to domestic workers," said Shalini Sinha, a New Delhi-based consultant affiliated with Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing, a U.S.-based network representing women in the informal sector.

"If there is a crime they are the first ones to be suspected. Any system of online security checks would have to factor in the interests of the domestic workers and not just the employers," Ms. Sinha added. It should mandate employers to provide contracts and minimum rates of pay to protect workers, she said.

Workers in the shadow economy can often be at risk of exploitation and abuse because there is little way for them to check the integrity of their employers.  "There is huge insecurity in their work," Ms. Sinha said. "They are often migrants and speak a different language, they are desperate for work so are unlikely to speak out about ill-treatment or poor pay," Ms. Sinha added.

Mr. Kamlani and his business partner, David Perla, are hoping to launch TrueProfile in the fall and say it will benefit both the employer and their workers.

The pair, who are both 43, met at law school in the U.S. and sold their previous business, Pangea3, a legal outsourcing company, to Thompson Reuters Corp. for just under $100 million in 2010.

"We've been doing business in India for 15 years and seeing that many of these people get stuck in this position; Serving tea, driving a car, being a domestic worker, because they don't have a profile or the ability to say, 'Here's all the things I did in the last five years, you should hire me,'" Mr. Kamlani added.

They are very capable but they don't have an opportunity to progress, he added.

There will be an online mechanism for supervisors to answer 10 multiple-choice questions about their employee, contributing to the worker's trustworthiness rating, which also will depend on the ratings of others in their circle, including family members who have profiles in the system.

Employers will be able to pay to access the security profile of an employee to check their credentials. The service is free for those submitting their resumes.

Once the platform reaches a critical mass of profiles created on the site, the entrepreneurs envisage being able to use their database to provide checks for businesses on new employees.

"Banks are interested in getting these people on the grid and we are talking to different banking groups about how they can partner with us," Mr. Perla said.

The pair describe their business as a social entrepreneurial enterprise. "But we fully expect it to be a profitable enterprise because it is serving a real business need," Mr. Kamlani added.

The company will employ agents to verify the information submitted by the workers, such as their address and, if they have migrated from a rural area, their address in the village.

Mr. Kamlani is confident that those the website aims to serve will be able to access the Internet to take advantage of the service.

"Our focus group research shows that they do use Internet cafes, they have access to Internet in the office and some access on their smart phones," he said.

However Jayati Ghosh, a professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, who has written extensively about the situation facing domestic workers in India, is not convinced by the idea.

"The online service would help a pool of a certain kind of domestic servants, maybe those who work in offices, but it would really not capture even 10% of the people who engage in this kind of activity," Ms. Ghosh said.

Most people are recruited by word of mouth to work in people's homes or in the informal sector and it is very difficult to monitor their work or their conditions, she added.

Sabina Dewan, director of the Just Jobs Network, an advocacy and research arm of the Center for American Progress, a U.S.-based think tank, said that the platform could play a role in helping to refine current systems to protect workers and make sure employers can trust those working in their homes and with their children.

"We have seen agencies that partner with a non-governmental organization and deal with the training of the workers and place them in a data bank with information about where they live and police checks," Ms. Dewan said.

A system like TrueProfile, which aims to balance social good with a market driven model, could be a progression from such data bases, she added.

"But it needs to be handled very carefully and most of the tools that I have come across [that try to do this] are a little bit crude," Ms. Dewan said. "They don't always think about the rights and education of the workers…They are trying to capitalize on the market opportunity but don't always consider the long term strategy and goals."

For Mr. Prasad, who found work as a housekeeper for an Indian family, a place where he could secure his references and verify his employment history would be welcome, he said. "That would be very good for me."
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