This article describes a business plan which would help spread knowledge among village people, help them earn their livelihood without having to migrate to cities plus help bridge the gap - be it money or knowledge or access to govt facilities. Ten years back this might not have been possible but with the advancement that science and technology has made I think this can be done now.
At present I am not in a position to involve myself directly in this – but the reason behind sharing this idea is that I feel there would be someone passionate enough to spend time and money in this (if they like the idea ofcourse).
At present setting up a remote call center in a village is very much feasible. A lot of small banks, micro finance institutions and major banks who have branches in these areas would need call center services. These services if provided by a local person would have a better and greater usefulness to the end customers. Imagine how much trouble a rickshaw puller faces when he tries calling a service provider's call center (if at all he calls). The reluctance to call is also because of the language barrier – only speaking in Oriya does not bring about the comfort factor – speaking in the exact flavor that is unique to that locality helps.
Another advantage of setting up local call centers is that it will stem the flow or migration of village people from village to city. Since the type of job they do in cities is mostly menial labor and get very less paid – this way they can earn the same or more by staying in their own place.
Advantage 3 : This will provide the base for spreading computer awareness in our villages. Plus since the network connectivity and PCs will be set up – some can be used to set up govt information centers.
The same place can double up as a call center and an information center.
Advantage 4: Since to answer queries people would need to be educated on the product and service details – a direct knowledge awareness would spread among village people.
How to do it ?
People : We will start with all the people who have a minimum qualification of clearing their 10th exam. Preference should be given more to girls because they will not be leaving the jobs to go to a different place plus they would ensure that the place is maintained properly. But having said this there is no reason why guys should not be recruited – anyone showing the above traits is a probable candidate.
Infrastructure : Initially we would reach to all the big companies, like Infosys,TCS etc or any IT company to sell us their old machines. Since it is of not much use to them we can procure it at a less price. For internet we might need to set up dish type antennas.
Customers :We need to approach all the banks, co-operative societies, any business house that wants to sell services or products in the villages. If nothing we can approach the state or central government to outsource some of their work to these call centers.
The logic is that this business will work in a similar way as micro finance works. We will set up a center and once it starts breaking even we would leave the management to the local guys and move on to set up another one. Only catch is that they have to contribute a certain percent to the parent body – otherwise what would fuel expansion.
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