'Bolo Azaadi' -'Chant Freedom'

One of the biggest development challenges in South Asian & APAC emerging markets such as Pakistan, India, Thailand and rural China is the prevalence of bonded child labour. [1] The World Bank estimates that there are 300+ million families globally who are linked formally or informally to corporate supply & value chains out of which ~20% (~60 million families) are impacted by bonded child labour. The scourge of child labour is particularly prevalent in industries that have a large volume of smallholder suppliers (e.g. brick kiln workers and hand-knotted carpet weavers), seasonal farmers (e.g. cotton pickers), informal SME retailers, factory workers and informal domestic workers).  In Pakistan alone, there are over 8 million children trapped in bonded labour. 

The families of bonded children are financially excluded from mainstream banking, are trapped in downward spirals of debt and have minimal access to catastrophic healthcare. Catastrophic health expenditures associated with heart attacks, strokes, trauma, maternal hemorrhage, etc. trigger major financial shocks for the uninsured (or under-insured) leading to generational indebtedness. 

Poverty forces these families to borrow money from loan sharks who then entrap their children as bonded labor. Please see https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2019/10/21/the-spiralling-debt-trapping-pakistans-brick-kiln-workers and https://pssr.org.pk/issues/v4/3/problems-of-bonded-child-labor-in-brick-kilns-industry-at-peshawar-pakistan.pdf. 

Bhalotra (2007) has examined the association between poverty and child labour. She has used a large household survey from rural Pakistan and estimated labour supply models for boys and girls in wage work. She has found that “poverty is associated with the supply of child labour into the active workforce”

Populations at heightened risk for poverty and bondage include migrant workers, refugees, internally displaced people and ethnic minorities. These vulnerable populations embody the ‘missing millions’ who lack access to legal identity documents (these documents are often held/confiscated by predatory loan sharks). Lack of legal identity makes families ineligible for social safety nets such as national health insurance, workers’ short-term disability or long-term disability insurance. Children are particularly vulnerable as there is no computerized national ID card for children (unlike adults). They are therefore 'untraceable' by law-enforcement authorities if they are abducted, trafficked or trapped in bonded labour.  

Without insurance, workers linked to corporate value chains are forced to liquidate any assets they might have, falling further into debt traps. Children of these families are forced to work to pay off extortionary, 'unpayable' loans. Loan sharks exploit the financial desperation of these families as well as their exclusion from mainstream banking. 

[1] Shah et al. Pakistan Social Sciences Review September 2020, Vol. 4, No. III [209-217]

BOLO AZAADI (‘Chant Freedom’) is the emerging world’s first digital “Kaiser-Permanente for the uninsured” and is powered by Naya Jeevan (‘new life’) a hybrid fintech/insurtech venture. BOLO AZAADI was launched in 2019 and is already scaling in South Asia (starting in Pakistan), providing over 50,000 lives with affordable access to high-quality health insurance, life insurance, livestock insurance & crop insurance & well-being services, including over 3000 families who were previously condemned to a lifetime bonded labour.

BOLO AZAADI is financially supported by corporations keen to eliminate bonded labour from their supply chains. This sustainable financing is covered by the multinational’s global risk management budget. Therefore, BOLO AZAADI is both scalable and globally replicable.

BOLO AZAADI finances high-quality private sector healthcare (including access to mental health & well-being services) for previously uninsured workers, including families that are currently or have previously been trapped in bonded labour. As part of its core inclusive business (health/life insurance for workers (including bonded labour) linked to corporate value chains such as factory workers, smallholder suppliers, etc.)

As BOLO AZAADI has a local, grassroots presence, it can conduct unannounced audits on small suppliers (e.g. carpet weavers who supply large, international retailers) without any fanfare or the typical 'dog and pony shows' that are put on by these unethical suppliers for auditors. Once BOLO AZAADI suspects a supplier/manufacturer of bonded child labour, it (i) alerts the local law enforcement authorities, (ii) connects affected families to the ‘Bait-ul-Maal’ (a government-financed fund) that provides emergency financial relief for impoverished families, (iii) liaises with human rights organizations that prosecute unethical suppliers who practice bonded child labour and (iv) notifies international buyers (usually multinational retailers) that child labour has been identified in their supply chain.     

We ensure that all data that flows through our digital health platform (e.g. electronic medical records, medical utilization history, personal demographics, etc.) is secure and encrypted, in compliance with GDPR. We make sure that data on ethnicity, religion, gender, gender orientation, etc. that is used to train models is representative of the population we are targeting.  Data is always anonymized and randomized to ensure our training models are unbiased.

Generative AI and predictive analytics models built from ‘training data’ databases (or data lakes) are compared to comprehensive data obtained from all our databases using quantitative data analysis. This gives us some insight into the accuracy of our AI models. 

As more and more data is collected, the AI technology will go through a process of 'kaizen' (continuous improvement). This will enable us to identify more situations of suspected child labour (by sub-contractors). This will then trigger the 'parachute' audit.     

BOLO AZAADI benefits low-income, underserved workers linked formally or informally to corporate and industrial value chains (e.g. smallholder suppliers, seasonal farmers, distributor sales force, MSME retailers and factory workers linked to the supply chains and value chains of MNCs such as Unilever, Mondelez, Friesland Campina, Tommy Hilfiger, Levis, etc.). The health insurance program also benefits the families of these workers (spouses, children and elderly parents). Household incomes for the target population range between $3/day and $10/day.

A significant portion of the target population is internally displaced people (IDPs) who work as (i) seasonal farmers in agri-value chains (e.g. cotton pickers, dairy or livestock farmers, etc.) or as (ii) factory workers in the garment/textile industry which is prevalent across East Africa, the ASEAN region and South Asia.

 By financing catastrophic health expenditures, BOLO AZAADI enhances the resilience of these fragile populations, providing them with a durable safety net (or a trampoline/springboard).  The most valuable income-generating assets are human assets which are protected via tech-enabled, comprehensive health insurance provided by BOLO AZAADI.

The BOLO AZAADI team is a multidisciplinary group of entrepreneurs, doctors, nurses, social scientists, MBAs, design thinkers and UX experts. One Co-Founder is a former VP of Sales at Thomson-Reuters (USA) with expertise in women’s entrepreneurship – she has also accelerated over 200 women-led businesses as part of a World Bank Women X accelerator. The other Co-Founder is a US-trained medical doctor-cum-MBA (in finance) with over 15 years of experience in systems change & impact entrepreneurship.

The BOLO AZAADI team is fluent in Hindi/Urdu/Punjabi (spoken in India and Pakistan) and represents the communities it works in. Many employees involved in the program are from low-resource communities that have families trapped in forced labour so they have both empathy and a deep understanding of the ‘problem’

The BOLO AZAADI program team has spent over 12 years in South Asia and is intimately familiar with the local culture and social norms.   

We have ~50,000 lives enrolled in our health/life insurance + digital health & wellbeing solution out of which 3000 families were trapped in bonded labour and were liberated by Bolo Azaadi. We are on the brink of closing a deal that will on-board another 125,000 families (~625,000 lives, including parents). We anticipate that ~7500 families will have at least one member of the family trapped in bonded labour.  We fully expect to enroll this population in August 2024.

Some of the key barriers we are confronted by include:

Market Access Barrier: our model relies on strategic collaborations with Multinational Companies (MNCs) that have extensive supply/chains globally, especially in Latin America, South Asia, ASEAN and East Africa. We currently partner with ~10 large MNC partners (average: 5000 families per MNC) but it takes 6-12 months to on-board one MNC partner given the human talent we have access to.

Financial Barrier: Raising growth capital in frontier markets such as Pakistan can be very challenging. We believe that our model has the potential to create a significant impact and liberate millions of children and adults trapped in bonded labour. With sufficient growth capital, we can replicate this model with over 250 large MNCs across 40+ countries globally. This replication can occur via joint ventures, strategic alliances or technical assistance. 

PR/Visibility Barrier: We’re interested in participating in this challenge as it allows us to showcase our solution in front of key decision-makers from the private sector. Such visibility and exposure will help accelerate our growth trajectory and enable us to liberate over 5 million children & adults trapped in bonded labour by 2030.

Bolo Azaadi is unique in that it uses: (i) a holistic, systems-based approach at the convergence of technology, empathy and  AI-enabled technology to rapidly screen, identify, validate and liberate workers linked in corporate supply/value chains who are trapped in forced labour, especially children. After liberating these workers, Bolo Azaadi enables adult reintegration into the free workforce while children are rescued and adopted by organizations that promote the safety and well-being of children. Both populations are provided with access to high-quality healthcare via female frontline worker (FFW)-assisted telemedicine

Another unique aspect of our model is that we use a cadre of FFWs to conduct ‘parachute’ audits while inside factories where they use telemedicine to connect factory workers to a global network of female HealthCare Providers (HCPs such as doctors, therapists, pharmacists, nutritionists, etc.)      

We recruit, capacitate, and equip these frontline health workers (nurses, etc) with tablets, smartphones and diagnostics.  These trusted intermediaries are pivotal to our model as they are the eyes and ears that represent the interests of buyers (corporate retailers) who wish to eliminate bonded labour (but are unable to do so with their current audit processes). The primary contractor (manufacturer) usually has impeccable facilities meeting all ISO specifications. However, lots of these manufacturers subcontract to smaller, (unethical) suppliers that are not audited by the multinational buyer-retailer. This is why bonded child labour still exists in corporate value chains in South Asia. Our Bola Azaadi innovation directly addresses this problem in a way that benefits workers trapped in bonded labour.   

Our theory of change (ToC) is the following: we believe that the unannounced ‘parachute’ audits (outputs) of corporate supply/value chains by female frontline health workers (FFWs), equipped with 4G tablets, wi-fi connectivity and diagnostics (the inputs) can lead to the identification and liberation of workers (especially children) trapped in bonded labour of unethical corporate supply/value chains (outcomes). To clarify, the FFWs do not visit the factories for the sole purpose of unannounced audits. They conduct FFW-assisted telemedicine clinics in which they connect factory workers to remotely located female healthcare providers (HCPs such as doctors, therapists and nutritionists). If they suspect bonded labour, based on the 1-on-1 confidential discussions they have with factory workers, they report these factories/suppliers for further action.    

Our ToC is validated by the United Nations Global Compact guide "Business: It’s Time to Act: Decent Work, Modern Slavery & Child Labour". This provides an overview of the steps businesses can take to help eliminate child labour while highlighting key resources, initiatives and engagement opportunities to support business action.

The reintegration of adult workers into ethical supply chains (outputs) coupled with improved, social and financial protection of these workers (outcomes) via health & life insurance leads to higher incomes (intermediate outcomes) and reduced prevalence of child labour (long-term outcome). 

The ILO's "Benefits of extending social protection" demonstrates how workers benefit from effective access to health care and higher levels of income security. This contributes to reducing poverty, enhancing their well-being, realizing their human rights to social security, health, and education, and reducing decent work deficits.

The Bolo Azaadi intervention culminates in increased financial inclusion, improved resilience, improved mental health outcomes and emancipation for adult workers and children trapped in bonded labour (the ‘long-term outcomes’).  

Impact goals for the Bolo Azaadi project include:

(i) Number of children who are identified and rescued from bonded labour in corporate supply chains liberated

(ii) Number of adults who are identified and rescued from bonded labour in corporate supply chains liberated

(iii) % increase in incomes of ‘freed’ workers reintegrated into the workforce

(iv) % Relative Reduction in Prevalence of anxiety & depression in workers (both children and adults)

(v) % Improved financial Return-on-Investment (ROI) for corporate financiers of health insurance plans benefiting value chain workers

The Bolo Azaadi project leverages the following exponential technologies: (i) generative AI, which assists female frontline workers (FFWs) in questioning factory workers (during their health consultations) in a way that engenders trust and reveals certain signatures, trends and patterns indicative of child labour in corporate supply chains and (ii) Predictive Analytics that use sophisticated algorithms to predict the presence of bonded labour in corporate supply-value chains. 

In addition to AI, 4G-tablet-equipped FFWs use diagnostic tools such as glucometers and pulse oximeters and video consultations to connect factory workers (end user-beneficiaries) to a global network of HealthCare Providers (HCPs including doctors, therapists and nutritionists). The FFWs also coordinate with HCPs via WhatsApp (social media). 

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The Bolo Azaadi team is a multidisciplinary group of 30 full-time personnel composed of entrepreneurs, doctors, nurses, MBAs, design thinkers and UX experts. 

In addition, the Bolo Azaadi program works with ~50 part-time and flexi-time female healthcare providers (HCPs).  

We have been working on the Bolo Azaadi program since 2019.

Aligned with its core mission, the Bolo Azaadi program by NAYA JEEVAN provides inclusive employment to women of colour.  Eighty percent (80%) of our workforce are women of colour. We also proactively recruit women of colour as Senior Managers & Board Directors (50% of our senior management team and 60% of our Board of Directors are women of colour). Bolo Azaadi proactively recruits transgender people and people with special needs (e.g. physically handicapped). 

For every dollar Bolo Azaadi receives from multinational corporate partners, 30% covers the cost of female frontline workers and healthcare providers, 40% covers the cost of health/life insurance and digital health & wellbeing services, 15% covers project operating expenses, yielding a 15% net surplus at the unit economic model which can be re-invested to help scale its impact.  

Bolo Azaadi partners with large MNCs and enrols workers linked formally or informally to corporate value chains into a health/life insurance and digital health & wellbeing plan. The whole family of the worker is enrolled - spouse, children and parents).

Bolo Azaadi will achieve sustainability (positive cash flow)  by 2027 via its earned income model (i.e. revenue generation from corporate partners) who purchase its health/life insurance and digital health/wellbeing services for workers linked to their supply-value chains. 

Innovation grants will help Bolo Azaadi practice 'Kaizen' and continuously improve its model via worker-centred design thinking.

Naya Jeevan has raised over $4.7 million over the past 12 years of which ~$1.5 million has been raised for the Bolo Azaadi program.