OTRA (Outsourcing Through Rural Arena) Technologies was established in the year 2010 with an objective of providing employment opportunities to people in rural areas & to enhance the industrial growth in the rural area. We have trained more than 150 people and gave employment to close to 60 people in our organization out of which majority of them are women.

We bridge the gap between companies who want to reduce their costs without compromising on quality and the people in the rural places who do not get an opportunity to work. Most of the men in the villages end up migrating to the cities. The women who might not have this option stay back and end up not working. At OTRA more than 65% of the total workforce is constituted by women.

A rural BPO gives dignified work to rural talent. Previously they were ending up to work as laborers in the nearby factories as they had no such opportunities to utilize their qualification and skills. It has mainly given an opportunity to women who were never sent to work. Now they support their family financially which has made people to respect them. Going forward this will also reduce the killing of female infants as they have proved that they can support their family similar to their husband and brothers. This will also in return increase the literacy rate of women in the country.

“The rural BPO concept is a win-win situation for everyone. It improves the standard of living of the people in the rural place.

Problem

Women are looked down upon in the society. They are only known to be homemakers. Though this is changing in the cities, it is very much the same in the rural areas. Hence the need of the hour is to empower women in the society. Qualified people in the rural areas have very less opportunities to utilize their talent and skills hence they migrate to the cities. This has resulted in huge migration hence the number of people involved in agriculture is reducing. This will create problems going forward as agriculture is the main source of our GDP. Given an opportunity to utilize their qualification they will stay back and also look in to options for better methods of cultivation. As new technologies of cultivations have to be implemented for better results. While the men have the option of migrating, very few women migrate from villages due to social barriers. This results in women staying back and not utilizing their talent. There are no better paying jobs to their qualification, hence low standards of living.

Solution

The solution for this need is to give a platform to people in rural areas to utilize the qualification and talent for better standards of living. A rural BPO in every village is a solution for this. It will cater to the main needs such as • Women empowerment • Development at BOP • Reduce in migration This kind of “impact sourcing” is the best form of solution. Considering the industries point of view, companies are finding options to reduce cost while maintain the same quality standards. This will be possible by providing solutions from rural areas as the operations cost are low. NASSCOM report says that more than 60% of people working in the BPO industry hail from tier 2 and tier 3 locations. Already many MNCs are considering this model and looking it as the future of the BPO industry.

Example

To cater to the need OTRA works on the model where in projects are routed to rural locations for their execution. We provide free training. The training goes on for 45 – 60 days which includes English, communication skills, basic computer skills, Ms-word, Excel, typing skills, leadership skills, process training, personality development and sharing knowledge and insights on the BPO industry and corporate culture. This training equips women with skills for life, opening many doors of opportunity. Going forward once there are multiple units of rural BPOs in various villages, a “Hub and Spoke” model will be followed where in work will be collected from clients in a main location and then distributed in parts to other centers. Once the work is executed the completed project is compiled and sent to the client. There are huge opportunities in the banking, telecom, government departments and other industries for outsourcing.

Marketplace

Our main focus is development at bottom of pyramid and women empowerment. In this regards our focus would be to train people in the rural areas, to provide job opportunities, to spread the word of literacy and to increase the literacy rate in rural India, to provide counseling and training in various institutions starting from school levels, to eradicate female infanticide. To execute all this we are in the process of tying up with MNCs and other organizations that will come forward to support our work.