Dial India

The problem of lack of skills, inadequate work opportunities in urban slums and disguised unemployment in rural areas have been accentuated due to the pandemic and extreme weather events. 

Our solution "Dial India" is a three-fold concept. 

1) We provide skill training based on local needs to young people in urban slums and rural areas.

2) We match trained youth with job openings through “Dial India”, a start-up led mobile application that connects service providers with service receivers.

3) We train a core group of local changemakers in soft skills & SDG awareness as a training of trainers program.

To scale globally, skill training will need to be location-specific. Soft skills are relevant and in-demand globally. Similarly, the mobile technology is location-agnostic. Anywhere around the world, investing in skills can directly increase livelihood, which motivates the community to invest and engage further. This creates positive change in people's lives.

With 365 million young people, India has the world largest young population and a huge demographic advantage in harnessing their energy and creative potential.But, the lack of market aligned skills coupled with low quality and undignified jobs are the two pressing issues for a growing economy like India. This problem has got more aggravated by sudden influx of reverse migration trends that is being experienced by many state economies due to the impact of global pandemic. On the other hand, India enjoys demographic dividend but due to under skilled youth the country is not able to leverage the dividend. The current reverse migration patterns calls for a solution which can provide inertia for rebuilding skills, jobs and strengthen livelihood among the people in urban slums and rural area.

Our program specifically addresses the need to equip youth with the technological and enterprising skills as well as the life skills needed to stay apace with the changing job market and economic downturns. 

The project seeks to establish and bridge the gap in skills and jobs by:

1) Providing market aligned certified skill training based on local needs by engaging universities and industrial training institutes. 

2) Supplementing market aligned training with soft skills development to enhance personal effectiveness, adaptability, resilience and overall employability. A select group of 15-20 youth will undergo a training of trainers program administered by Ubiquity University titled “Foundation in Soft Skills”. The trainers will be equipped to administer the content to others and adjust to local needs. 

3) Establishment of  a youth led social enterprise to provide job opportunities through a mobile app based technology (matchmaking algorithm, machine learning and AI) enabled solution that will help to recognize youth for their skills and then match them with opportunities in their locality.  

The target population are the youth(both boys and girls) who reside in urban slums in very difficult and deprived conditions.Generally, the youth possess low level of education but they are semi skilled without any certification in various trades which includes maid servants, cooks, electrician, plumbers, carpenters, mechanics, house cleaning, caretakers, etc.They are generally engaged in informal sector and contributes to urban economy. Particularly, the girls in slum lead a miserable and deplorable life; sometimes devoid of basic rights. So, the girls are one of the key target beneficiary of our project.The other target groups are the youth from rural areas comprising of migrants(with no resource or job opportunities) and youth from rural areas who are living in urban pockets looking for employment opportunities.

In Bhubaneswar, there is a huge market available for service industry especially for various household services. A connection between clients and services providers is missing. So, the project seeks to establish a connection between the  clients and trained service provides to create business and employment opportunities for the youth through technologically enabled solutions.The focus will be to train them technically on particular skill and to transform them into complete professional service provider with decent job opportunities.

Challenge 1: Low level of skills among youth( technical and basic soft skills) and  lack of certification of skills

Solution 1: Training and Certification of skills

 Challenge 2:There is no platform to connect with service providers for finding work opportunities.

Solution 2: The Mobile based application technology(app will provide the platform to connect with service provider and service seekers)

Challenge 3: The low skilled youth engaged in informal sector are devoid of  insurance and other benefits which generally a formal system offers.

Solution  3: Creation of "Social Enterprise" provides dignified jobs with insurance and other benefits. 

The solution is innovative in the sense that the mobile application
based technology which allows trained youth from vulnerable and marginalized communities to connect with the users looking for specific
services. All the professionals listed on this platform would be verified and
certified by competent agencies. “Dial India” will become the all in one platform that will help service providers from plumbers, electricians, and
mechanics to cleaners, home nurses and domestic helps. The matchmaking
algorithm in the application will identify service providers who are closest to the users’ requirement at the requested time and date. 

The innovative aspect is to transform the informal sector business into formal social enterprise by establishing a company owned by the disadvantaged youth, who are skilled and employed as a result. It will encourage the unorganized sector for certification of existing skills and integrate with formal labour market and open up options for up skilling and further vertical mobility. Multitasking in complimentary areas will be promoted to enable sustainable livelihood. The project will also harness inclusivity by inclusion of various disadvantaged groups from tribes and castes, and ensure 50% female so as to reduce gender inequality (SDG5).

The innovation of the solution also lies in its business model which advocates for creation of sustainable social enterprise and revenue generated would be invested for the scale of operations. The enterprise is managed and led by the youth who are shareholders of the enterprise.

The solution is a new application of an existing technology.  "Dial India" is a social enterprise that seek to serve train, certify their skills and transform them into professionals youth (service providers) connect them with service receivers (the users) through mobile technology based android application. The application can be used on smartphone. The automated matchmaking algorithm would be used to bridge the gap between service providers and service receivers. The project will take help of technology through Artificial Intelligence(AI) and machine learning process for the data management, which helps them assess the users’ needs better. The open-source language will be used for the android app development.The focus would be on design an elegant and user-friendly UI for the mobile app, which is key to attracting and retaining users. The “Integrated Development Environment” (IDE) would be used for overall app development as it supports the open source language programming.

The evidence that the technology works can very well be understood from the existing model of URBAN COMPANY where it uses technology to simplify the process of finding the right service professional.The objective of Urban Company is to enable users to find and hire the right professional for all their needs. The customers can go ahead and book a service on the app, and the professional will show up at the pre-appointed time. The evidence clearly indicates towards finding the right match using data and ML/AI, training of the professionals, to ensuring the professional shows up on time.The technology focus is on cloud infrastructure and in this context the cloud computing platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud can be leveraged. Startups,like our social start up company can optimize this current technology architecture choices and built a great, vibrant social enterprise where the profit can be reinvested back to the marginalized youth stakeholders. 
 

Our Theory of Change is to provide customized livelihood opportunities to the resource poor households particularly youth and women, so that their families get empowered to make informed investments in education, Skill development and health thus leading to improve quality of life. The use of technology enabled processes will further strengthen it. 

Here in this particular project, we provide market aligned skills and certify them for semi-skilled youth and transform them into skilled service professionals. They are also trained on life skills and soft skills for holistic development. The entire process will help in connecting and engaging with the potential service providers in an efficient and professional way. The outcome of this intervention get reflected in term of changes in their knowledge, skills, attitudes and motivation level to rise up in the ladder of growth and well being. The tangible results obtained in the project in terms of increase in level of youths trained and received job opportunities will receive attention from the policymakers, which will further help scaling up the project to other areas and will influence overall to design interventions that will take into account the changes in policy, procedure and practice. The long term impact of the project will be reflected in term of changes in improvement in social and economic conditions.

The project will directly and meaningfully benefit youth from the socially excluded communities. The number of people that the solution seeks to serve are as follows:

The current number of people that organization is currently serving: 5000

The number of people that the organization will be serving in one year time: 6000 

The number of people that the organisation will be serving in five years time: 30000

The goals for next year are to train 200 youths in vocational skills and successfully connect them to potential end users of the services. In 5 years, the partnership intends to scale up the initiative in India and move to South Asian economies, namely Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The target to train at least 2000 youths and connect them with potential services and help them carve their own niche for themselves.

For achieving impact goals, the focus would be on increasing the number of trained youth, enhancing the ways and means to increase business growth rate, and collaborating with like-minded social enterprises for replication and scalability in India as well as in South Asian countries with the help of our partners MasterPeace Global and Ubiquity University.

Looking at the future, although workers clearly need to be equipped with vocational skills that suit local needs, we will also need to prepare these young people for an extremely volatile job market through increasing their soft skills. Workers need to be equipped with transferable skills (personal effectiveness, communication, collaboration, emotional intelligence, entrepreneurship, leadership, mindfulness, management, global mindset) that are sought after in every sector, anywhere. In a 2016 study from the assessment company Wonderlic, 93% of employers said that soft skills are either an “essential” or “very important” factor in hiring decisions. It is crucial for workers to be digitally and technologically literate as well. This will be insured through integrating Ubiquity University’s Foundation in Soft Skills Learning System into our solution.

The barriers that currently exist are lack of funding (finance) and inadequate technological support. The next five years the barriers would be how to remain technologically relevant and remain superior; as in a fast changing technological environment there is a constant fear of technology becoming obsolete and redundant. Thus the factor of redundancy needs to be taken care off. We are also keen to scale and roll out the concept in other states of India as well as South Asia and globally.

We along with our consortium partners would like grow and evolve with
technology. In this process we will try our best to keep ourselves updated with latest technologically trends, happening and understanding the context in relation to our venture.

Barrier 1: Inadequate Finance

Solution: Through mobilizing grants  and collaborating with government technical institutions for technical support and finance.

Barrier 2: Technology

Solution: Creating, innovating and adding features and attributes with the help of our technology partner. In short, reinventing ourselves with best technological solutions.

Barrier 3: Human Resources

Solution: Creating a cadre of change agents who would be responsible for working through the entire value chain and will touch each nodes of the change through their innovation and creativity.

Barrier 4: Scaling

Solution: Share the concept with MasterPeace Clubs around the world who might be interested in directly replicating it within their contexts, or mobilizing relevant partners from their local networks.

The full time staff is 23 and part time staff is 9. VIEWS has very qualified and dedicated team working in different projects. In MIT solve project total 7 members are working hard to reach the next level in the project.There are 3 key team members and 4 supporting team members. Among the 7 team members working in the project, 3 team members belong to the partner organizations.

The partnership approach where TEAM VIEWS, MasterPeace
Foundation and Ubiquity University has come together with clearly defined goals and objectives to the problem. The team has done strong ground work in understanding and defining the problem and always conducted series of discussion with the community members in urban slums and also in rural areas. In that context, the demand side is very clear while in the context of supply side the team has undertaken discussion to develop the prototype with user friendly features to roll out the solution for testing and subsequent final implementation.

1) Voluntary Integration for Education and Welfare of Society (VIEWS) is a growing Non-Profit Organization working for Education, Youth empowerment, social entrepreneurship and promotion of sustainable livelihoods in Odisha. VIEWS is the main concept designer and will assume responsibility for project management, financial management, networking of stakeholders, reporting and documentation, donor relations management and implementing the project. 

3) MasterPeace Foundation is a global network of grassroots NGOs working in 40 countries to mobilize, inspire and connect young local talents and create perspective through leadership trainings, capacity-building programs and start-up of social enterprises. In this project, MasterPeace Foundation will play a mentor role by offering knowledge management, communication and capacity building of partner organisations. 

3) Ubiquity University was founded in 1996 by Dr. Matthew Fox, a world renowned educator and writer, as a non-profit graduate school licensed by the California Bureau of Private and Postsecondary Education (BPPE). We have had first (virtual) meetings and reached an agreement about utilizing specific tools, namely: UbiPass: a global standards skill-matching and assessment passport with a course recommendation engine; UbiSkills: the Soft Skills Learning System which delivers 21st-century skillsets and mindsets one needs to navigate a rapidly transforming world; UbiVerse: a social platform for changemakers to find each other, share resources and organize based on skills and passions.

The partnership will strive towards a synergistic approach to solve the problem. All organizations are now jointly working towards development of the skill-training programme and the technology prototype with attributes and features to suit the users' needs.

The business model of Dial India revolves around connecting service providers with the service seekers. Dial India is an online platform that allows people to find professionals to help them with daily services. These services can range from plumbing, electrician, home cleaning, beautician and other odd activities. The business model highlights the way how professionals get employment and is paid quickly. The application will be available on Smartphone, and it connects the specialists with the users. The organization intends to bridge the gap between service providers and service receivers. The automated matchmaking algorithm would be used. The business model is presented  as follows:

For plumbing, electrician work or home cleaning the company will generate revenue by providing customized services to the clients at reasonable price by using the application.The major part of the revenue will go to the service provider based on their services rendered. A small portion of revenue will be reinvested in the social enterprise to sustain the operations. Along with we will raise start up grants, equity capital  and loan funds to scale the operations.

 The company will generate revenue by providing customized services to the clients at reasonable price by using the application.The major part of the revenue will go to the service provider based on their services rendered. A small portion of revenue will be reinvested in the social enterprise to sustain the operations. Along with it, we will raise start up grants, equity capital  and loan funds to scale the operations.

VIEWS in partnership with Master peace Foundation would also write funding proposals for donation and grants for uplifting poor socially excluded class from the clutches of poverty. The social start up company in the long run would also leverage the advertisement in the app thorough google ad sense and it will help maximize revenue in the long run. The partnership will also explore the opportunities for raising the investment capital in this regard.

The barriers that solve help us to overcome is by granting the initial seed money for this project. In a broad sense the initial funding to provide support to an organization. The next help that the partnership require is to support in form of developing technical resource and also helps building networking skills.

This challenge will support us with the following:

> enabling our grassroots-level team to gain exposure to a global scene of other great initiatives and create new contacts and exchange ideas with other innovators and stakeholders.
> sharpening our pitch and delivering it to potential partners and sponsors, providing us with a crucial global platform to raise awareness of our local initiative. 
> kicking off important publicity and broadcasting of our mobile app which will ultimately connect us with a wide target audience.
> gaining exposure to expert knowledge and training can be a game changer for our project, enabling us to refine our solution, integrate technical advice as well as develop a future-proof and fully viable business plan of the project. 

We are keen to maximally leverage the much-required feedback and continuous evaluation from experts across the globe, connected via MIT Solve Challenge.

The partnership need support for skill training of youth,support for technological advancement,development of enterprise and funding support.

TEAM VIEWS is highly interested to partner with MIT faculty members in this initiative in particular and emerging global issues at grassroots level in general. VIEWS would like to collaborate in research, students exchange and technology inclusion. In the past, VIEWS has worked with international universities; like University of Texas, Virginia Tech University, University of Waterloo, Canada and University of Wisconsin. 

Currently, VIEWS is working in partnership with ASIA INITIATIVES, USA for digital literacy and Social capital credits(SoCCs) in urban slums of Odisha.

In this initiative, VIEWS is in partnership with Master Peace Global and Ubiquity University and work towards strengthening the capabilities in the training and certification of service professionals. Additionally, we also work in areas like product procurement, technology, and financing. 

VIEWS do qualify for this prize as it considers "Women" as the centric point for all interventions. VIEWS created women led social enterprise(affordable sanitary napkins) to address menstrual hygiene issues in remote rural Odisha. We have created "Women Organic Entrepreneurs" to address issues to deal with environment and land sustainability. The organization has established an young women lead environment friendly cloth bags to mitigate the harmful effects of plastics. 

The team will use innovation for women prize to advance the solution as women household heads are one of the main target groups or segments. The women role in the current context( which includes facing the harmful impacts of extreme weather events coupled with pandemic) has been deteriorating with no or very less resources to feed their family and kids. In this context, coming out with a technologically based skill training and subsequently connecting them with potential work;which offers dignified employment. This will eventually help in uplifting this vulnerable segments out from the clutches of poverty and it get ultimately reflected in the lives of  their children and old age dependents like parents. 

VIEWS as a youth centric organization working on inclusive skill and enterprise development among youth in the last decade.It has created jobs and sustainable livelihoods for more than 5000 disadvantaged groups. The GM prize on Goods Jobs and Inclusive Entrepreneurship will help to upscale and advancement of the already initiated interventions in the current volatile environment by bringing in technology led solution for holistic development of the socially excluded communities. 

In this endeavor,the particular project Dial India will help to advance the solution as it opens the window for the youth in the slums and rural Odisha with a possibility to receive training, hand holding support and seed capital for interested and capable youth by mobilizing the schemes of Micro Medium and Small Enterprises opportunities for a bright future. VIEWS, in particular would like to leverage the relationship it created with various government department, be it National Bank for Agriculture and Development(NABARD) and state government missions; such as skill Odisha  as well as Odisha Livelihood Mission  for leveraging the skilling initiatives and promoting entrepreneurship opportunities.

VIEWS established a "Urban Resource Center" to provide urban literacy to 700 adults from the below poverty line communities by engaging students from national and international universities, media to transform their lives. Along with adult literacy, the organization has provided digital and financial literacy and life skills education for overall development. The outcome of the series of initiatives has led to complete their education under open distance education. 90% of our adults; mainly young women from our center able to operate computers independently, use internet to process information and are financially literate.