A collective of IIT and IIM students set up a helpline for workers

Students from all colleges and universities have stepped up to the plate during these trying times and done their bit. From making a device that helps track your health and patients, a website to have all COVID related information curated and filed in one place to developing low-cost masts and testing kits. Keeping in line with these innovations a few students from IITs and IIMs have established a helpline that will aid in recruiting workers who lost their job due to the lockdown. Students for Involved Governance and Mutual Action (SIGMA), created by the students, under the assistance of Deputy Commissioner, Delhi, Abhishek Singh along with bureaucrat Durga Shakti Nagpal, who is also a part of the PMO’s COVID-19 Response Task Force.

The helpline - 8800883323 - is named 'ektara'. It aims to aid the unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled workers in finding work across Delhi - NCR. It will be operational from 10 AM to 7 PM every day. The calls will be attended by student volunteers. Potential employers and workers can contact the helpline and the students will connect them as per their requirements.

While the lockdown has been a difficult time for everyone, the livelihood of workers has had a serious impact. Most of them are rendered jobless, and the pilot project has been launched to combat that. Both local and migrant workers fall under the purview of this student-led endeavour.

The exodus witnessed during the lockdown due to sudden employment was the result of mass unemployment. These workers are returning to their villages. The economy of their hometowns is not capable of supporting their livelihood and eventually, they would have to move back to cities in search of employment.

The think-tank said that a mechanism is needed to help these workers find work without inconvenience. This will also be a step towards tackling the worker shortage that many industries are facing.

SIGMA aspires to act as a convenient job searching platform for the informal sector. It is targeted towards the labour demand-supply mismatch.

A database will also be created in order to appropriately match the skilled workers with employers who need them. With industries resuming their operations, the employers are beginning to feel the deficit of workers, especially in cities like Delhi and Mumbai.

Here is how the IITs and IIMs have been contributing to the fight against corona!

Updated On: 19 Sep'21, 09:21 AM IST

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