Source for Change - SME with a difference

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Namrata Kath Hazarika | 15 Oct, 2008
The BPO industry is now working to reach out to the domestic rural areas to provide a good platform to the locals for business networking. That is what "Source for Change" a SME with only 10 sari-clad women seeking to do currently in Bagar, Rajasthan.

In this context, Karthik Raman highly placed official from Source for Change opined in the Business Process Industry leaders Forum 2008 in national capital recently organized by CII "We have 10 women who yearned to contribute to the progress of not only their village but also their country and perhaps were seeking opportunities to do so."

"When we thought of the idea to bring a BPO office at the part of Rajasthan every body thought it to be skeptical," he says.

"Today the company is empowering women with employment opportunities and providing quality dedication and best practices to the BPO industry. Source For Change aims to present rural women a platform to be financially independent and to achieve greater social standing."

When SME Times asked him what kind of challenges he faced while establishing the setup, he said, "The first and foremost hurdle we faced was convincing people of this possibility. We further assured to give training that other urban BPOs are providing. All were skeptical whether things will work or not."

"One more vital aspect is to convince clients about such kind of projects in the rural areas and also at a competitive price," Raman added.

On the reason for choosing women for this activity he pointed out "Social case is women are just like micro-finance industry, if they are earning income they are spending the amount on their family. If women are learning something than they are definitely going to pass it on to their children, which is good for our rural India. This will help the rural women to purchase a personal computer and teach their children how to use the computer, etc."

"Further business wise we have also observed that women have a tendency to inculcate details and provide potential work to the clients, thereby, increasing the quality of output we usually expect. And in fact they also have great deal of loyalty for our business," he said.

He further said, "We have created job opportunities in rural areas, which is perhaps very inaccessible and have given the rural Indians a platform to showcase their talent and knowledge. We can provide high quality rural work in the IT sector as compared to urban areas in this sector.

"However, we are planning to employ 1,000 to 2,000 women in the near future. He also said the minimum educational qualification should be at least till 10 standard, awareness of basic English and aptitude test is also added for the recruitment in rural areas.

"We have a very ambitious approach to extent beyond Rajasthan in the near future. This will surely happen in other places of North India and through out the country," Raman added.

"We are also very competitive with our larger counterparts and trying to set up a benchmark just like other BPOs. We have our competitors and "Source for Change" will definitely do better in the near future.We have trained our employees only for about 2 months and in two month they made their way pretty good," he commented.

When asked the basic salary they are offering to their employees he said "At present we are providing them Rs. 3500-4000 initially and I hope it is good start for them, isn't it?" he added.