Palash Mondal lived for most of his life in a residential care home in Kolkata, India. His parents were unable to provide for him and so they reluctantly decided he would be better off in the care of others. This is not an unusual situation in India as few people in “orphanages” here are actually orphans. While at the care home Palash was a student of Uddami’s free computer training school, which is funded by Uran Software Services, a Samasource provider.
Palash was forced to leave the care home after he fell in love with Shukali, his future wife, against the wishes of the care home authorities. For 2 years Palash tried to make ends meet. He and Shukali moved back to his parent’s village where they shared a small room. Palash describes the difficulties of that time, “It was difficult for me to get job at any IT company or anywhere else because I had low education and zero experience.”
In 2005, after the birth of his first child, Palash got back in touch with Uddami. Uran Software Services was being formed and Palash was hired as one of the first staff. At first he worked part-time but as USS developed more clients a full-time position was created.
Palash developed quickly in his job. He had a great interest in web development work and was able to use his knowledge of html learned at Uddami to understand a wide variety of web tools and techniques. Quickly he began to manage projects independently because of his extensive knowledge. He was promoted to web development manager in 2008 and helps manage and train other staff in web tasks.
Palash now says it was Uran and their founders “…who believe[d] in my capabilities … They both trained me and made me work hard for my better future and today I dream to be a web developer which I never thought I could be.” His healthy, happy 4 year old son, Bumbol, is the best testament to the brighter future ahead. Palash’s story demonstrates the power that giving work, not aid has in transforming and empowering the poor.
One Comment
It is important that we consider Palash’s story in the wider scale too. Palash is not simply receiving work, his employment has developed a new knowledge set for him. Plash offers an example of outsourcing knowledge as opposed to simple labor.
Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) as it is known in general terms is the development of skilled jobs in the outsourcing industry. The Business Day, a South African Newspaper calls KPO intellectual capital. “KPO is a whole new business proposition with immense potential for job creation, generating foreign exchange that in turn contributes to economic growth, poverty alleviation and social upliftment. It also presents enormous opportunities across the board in any society for all sorts of professions and people. Anything that can be digitalised can be done by KPO.” (Emmanel Barreto, an ITC senior adviser on trade in services, Business Day)