ORGANIZATIONAL UNDERSTANDING

AAJEEVIKA BUREAU

By

Anshuman Singh (p25060)

Ashwani Kumar (p25062)

ORGANIZATIONAL TRAINEESHIP SEGMENT

PRM 2004-06

Submitted to
Prof. H S Shylendra

HOST ORGANIZATION: AAJEEVIKA BUREAU, UDAIPUR, RAJASTHAN

August, 2005
INSTITUTE OF RURAL MANAGEMENT

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Title : Organizational Understanding

Organization : Aajeevika Bureau (AB)
Reporting Officer : Rajiv Khandelwal
Faculty Guide : Prof. H S Shylendra
Students’ Name : Anshuman Singh (p25060) and Ashwani Kumar (p25062)

Scope: The organizational study captures the birth and evolution of Aajeevika Bureau over
the last year. It attempts to understand the context within which the activities and the
resources of the organization are established and operated.

Methodology: The information regarding the organization was collected through daily
observations, interactions at the office, available documents we were allowed to peruse and
informal talks with the organizational staff. The organizational study was done through
application of Howard Dowding’s Universal Business Model.

Findings: Aajeevika Bureau (AB) was born out of the “Aajeevika” study done by SUDRAK
(A consultancy services organization run by a team of professionals more or less under the
adhocracy configuration. Presently SUDRAK is dormant as it has not taken up any research
or consultancy assignment) for ARAVALI and UNDP to explore livelihood sources of people
in South Rajasthan which revealed that migration is a strategy adopted by the rural masses to
supplement their livelihoods. Aajeevika Bureau was registered as a trust recently. When
looking at Aajeevika Bureau from the perspective of life-cycle, the bureau is in transitional
stage between entrepreneurial and collectivity stages where the characterization can be drawn
on points of clarity of goals and objectives but lack of organizational components with
defined boundaries of existence.

Aajeevika Bureau ‘lives’ for arming its resources towards providing and protecting the
livelihood services for highly vulnerable people – labourers and migrants of South Rajasthan.
The bureau recognizes the inevitability of phenomenon of migration as a major livelihood
strategy. Unlike previous attempts to contain the mass exodus, the bureau seeks to provide
services and required support to assist unskilled labourers and migrants in improving their
social and economic well-being. Through the activities in (a) registration, training and
placement of unskilled migrant labourers (b) providing them services in health, food, shelter,
education and finances and (c) research and policy related works to provide secure lives to
the labourers, the organization is affirmatively stating its unstated vision and mission.

The level of complexity is low in the organizational composition (we defer to write structure
here for the reason that formalized structure is not in place) due to shallow vertical
differentiation. However, spatial differentiation is high owing to expansion of bureau offices
at various centres is taking place in collaboration with other organizations. Also, horizontal
differentiation is high due to spread in wide range of livelihood support activities for migrant
labourers.

Future Road Map: The management of the activities is unorganized due to the lack of
financial and human resources which are expected to fall in place in near future provided the
existing ‘self-controlled and practical’ enthusiastic work is sustained. This reflects that
though growth is being sought through direction, Aajeevika Bureau realizes a crisis of

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control. Interestingly, it is also growing through collaboration. For the young Aajeevika
Bureau (AB), evaluation of growth and effectiveness will require a self-evolved model of
organizational growth.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.........................................................................................................i
1. Background............................................................................................................................1
2. Genesis of Aajeevika Bureau.................................................................................................2
3. Aajeevika Bureau – the Purpose.............................................................................................3
4. Bureau Offices and the Activities...........................................................................................3
5. Organizational Study..............................................................................................................4
5.1 Scope................................................................................................................................4
5.2 Objective .........................................................................................................................5
5.3 Methodology....................................................................................................................5
5.4 Limitations.......................................................................................................................5
6. The Universal Business Model...............................................................................................6
7. The Model Applied and the Findings.....................................................................................7
7.1 Identity.............................................................................................................................7
7.2 Purpose.............................................................................................................................8
7.3 Structure.........................................................................................................................11
7.4 Participants.....................................................................................................................12
7.5 Enablers..........................................................................................................................14
7.6 Activities.........................................................................................................................15
Training is a well developed activity at Aajeevika Bureau. The willing youths apply through a
fixed format application form. The form is scrutinized and the organization engages itself into
face to face interaction with the applicants and upon being confident about the applicant and
his suitability for skill training a group of trainees is formed and a professionally designed
training module is imparted to the trainees. The educational requirements of a trainee are at
least a pass in seventh standard. The group strength for training is kept at an acceptable level
of 20 to 25. A brief of the training activity in the last year is presented here...........................17
All six training programmes (imparted to 118 migrant youths) have been entirely residential
and have involved designing new methods and processes of learning and skill-building given
the special needs of the migrant groups. The training programmes have combined intensive,
technical skill building with literacy and life skill education geared to improve the
professional opportunities and confidence of migrants. By the end of the first year, the
Bureau has gained good experience in all dimensions of training and placement for migrants
in different sectors. The training has covered five skill areas of construction – masonry,
carpentry, plumbing, house wiring and welding. ....................................................................17
The 67 trainees came from Gogunda and Kotda blocks and were mainly tribal or of
Scheduled Caste belonging to poor households, with little or no land, dependent on labour for
their major livelihood. By selection criteria the trainees should have cleared the seventh grade
(this condition was relaxed for masonry) and should have had some prior migration
experience. Finally, the trainee should have the demonstrable ability and commitment to be
trained and stay on campus without wages for the entire duration. While the first batch
comprised all category of migrants, the second batch included those in urgent need of
employment, but unable to migrate long distances on account of adverse family conditions. A
specialised training was organised to equip them with skills that can be used through
relocation closer to their homes. The third batch was a group specially selected from the very
remote and primarily rural-to-rural migration driven Kotda block. ........................................17
The skill training typically begins with an initial assessment of individual performance and
aptitude, based on which an option for specialization is offered to the trainees. The batch is
divided into work groups for each sector and allotted sites on the Polytechnic campus where

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they had to construct, fit, repair and fabricate as part of practical, hands-on training. While
the skill training was in progress, a number of civil contractors, architects and masons were
brought to the campus to provide feedback and technical inputs.............................................18
Apart from skills of construction, the participants were equipped with information,
knowledge and techniques that would enable them to negotiate, more effectively than at
present; with the labour market and with employers and help them gain more confidence in
urban settings. The modules included: literacy and numeral skills, health and hygiene, labour
laws and workers’ rights, information about the market, work ethics and financial
management, personality development. A number of local agencies were brought on board to
give training in these areas drawing upon their areas of expertise...........................................18
The three batches in construction training helped the Bureau to expand its network to civil
and labour contractors, sanitary and electric contractors, master masons, and steel fabricators,
builders and architects, who became the employers of the trained youth. The network is
strong in Udaipur and is now rapidly growing in towns of Gujarat – Ambaji, Khedbrahma
and Palanpur – which are the destinations of communities from blocks that border the state.
..................................................................................................................................................18
Domestic services: In collaboration with Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Udaipur (which has a Home
Science portfolio) two 20-day residential training programmes were organised for women
commuter- and migrant-labourers from rural areas around Udaipur. Named ‘Daksha’, the
training was for batches of women selected based on their financial need and willingness to
work as trained full-time domestic help in Udaipur homes. Urban homes are tough employers
and pay their domestic helpers poorly. Women constitute the majority of this work force; they
are paid abysmally low wages because of poor bargaining ability and, frequently, poor skills
especially at the entry level. Domestic helpers are amongst the least organised of labour
sectors, hence, any form of collective negotiations for wages or security does not ever occur.
The Daksha programme was an opportunity for the Aajeevika Bureau to learn about the
domestic services labour market and its demands in terms of skills and employability for
women. ....................................................................................................................................18
Aajeevika Bureau’s focus was on identifying tribal women from poor and difficult
backgrounds who come, or wish to come, to Udaipur seeking work. The women were
selected from villages within commuting distance of Udaipur city. Some prior experience of
working in homes (as cleaners/sweepers) was another basis for selection. A number of
women who were finally selected after a two-month long process were those facing difficult
personal situations on their domestic fronts and struggling with acute poverty. Typically, they
have little skills in urban home management and remain restricted to cleaning, sweeping and
dishwashing, if employed at homes. Due to their social and cultural backgrounds and very
little education, they are not considered suitable for higher niche services, like cooking,
childcare, security, personal assistance, etc. in homes. Daksha explored the possibility of
upgrading rural migrant women in the urban domestic services sector by “professionalising”
their skills and personalities. It explored the urban home sector for (a) more dignified work
conditions, and (b) better incomes for commuting and migrant rural women. .......................19
The components of the “Daksha” training comprised cooking, storekeeping, housekeeping,
child-care, use of home appliances and guest relations. Associated sessions included
grooming, health, personal hygiene, professional ethics, legal aid, self-defense and financial
management.............................................................................................................................19
Hotel and tourism services: As part of the skill training component of the Bureau a batch of
young, tribal men was trained in hotel and tourism services. This 20-day programme was
conducted by an experienced housekeeping manager from a renowned, government-owned
hotel in Udaipur. The training hoped to get a new start for young tribal migrants who work in

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very poor conditions in Gujarat highway dhabas, low-end hotels or food processing factories.
..................................................................................................................................................19
7.7 Deliverables....................................................................................................................23
7.8 Influences.......................................................................................................................26
7.9 Culture............................................................................................................................27
7.10 Performance.................................................................................................................28
[.................................................................................................................................................29
8. Issues of Concern.................................................................................................................29
PART - B..............................................................................................................................32
1. Aajeevika Bureau Migration Database (ABMD).................................................................32

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1. Background

Rural migration has become a major social and economic reality for populations residing in
marginal, rain-dependent and poorly industrialized regions of India. Southern Rajasthan is
one such region that has been witness to fundamental shifts in the way rural communities
earn their incomes and manage their economic life. Surveys and studies confirm this shift
from traditional farming, forestry and livestock to an increasing dependence on wage labour
and migration.

Rural to urban migration has often been considered to be a negative and undesirable
phenomenon. Many organizations and projects in India specifically work towards preventing
or reserving rural migration. Much emphasis is therefore placed on improving land and
livestock based economic activities or on starting up micro enterprises in rural areas. In
regions such as South Rajasthan the potential for expanding both of this remains small and in
fact migration has become an inevitable strategy for the poor. Indeed migration to urban and
industrial area has helped many rural households escape abject poverty and an oppressive
social milieu.

Aajeevika Bureau’s work is premised on the notion that rural migration will remain an
inevitable reality for rural poor and that it has reached irreversible proposition. There is in
fact an urgent need to facilitate higher returns and greater security for migrating populations.
Aajeevika is a vernacular term, meaning “livelihood”. The Bureau is an effort in this
direction.

The organizational study begins with the genesis and birth of Aajeevika Bureau. It is then
followed by identification of the purpose of the organization. A brief introduction to the
activity profile of the organization is then presented. Subsequently, the Universal Business
Model used to analyze the organization is described and findings so emerging on applying the
model are then presented. Finally, possible future course of action are indicated.

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2. Genesis of Aajeevika Bureau

Aajeevika Bureau was born out of a study done by SUDRAK for ARAVALI and UNDP in
2002. Before describing about the study the section deals with a brief description on
SUDRAK. SUDRAK is a research and consultancy services organization started in 1998 by
Mr. Rajiv Khandelwal and Mr. Sudhir Kumar Katiyar who graduated from Institute of Rural
Management, Anand (IRMA) in 1987. The organization has provided more than a score of
studies and consultancy works for various kinds of organizations in the country and abroad.
In 2002, SUDRAK undertook a study called “Aajeevika - Livelihoods in Rajasthan:
Status, Constraints and Strategies for Sustainable Change” for ARAVALI (ARAVALI is a
development support organization initiated by the Government of Rajasthan to promote
innovation in development and greater collaboration between the government and non-
government organizations). The study was done to capture the diversity of livelihood
conditions across the State. The Aajeevika study covered four development blocks in
Rajasthan, each representing a larger socio-ecological region of Rajasthan (viz., the Tribal
South, the Desert West, the Irrigated East and the Semi-Arid North Central zones), with a
view to identifying important livelihood options and constraints facing different segments of
the population in each region.

One of the major findings of the study for Tribal South Rajasthan was that migration is a
growing strategy of livelihood generation for the people of the area but the mass of people
resorting to migration were not entering into any entrepreneurial income generation activity.
Rather a large mass of these migrants were entering the labour market in various sectors like
construction, agriculture, hotel and many more as unskilled wage labourers whose earnings
were limited . Even circular movements to various destinations and engagement in varied
works usually do not fetch better returns to the migrant population. The vertical mobility of
these people was highly restricted owing to economic and structural factors in the urban and
rural economy to which these people converged.

This sparked the idea of organizing resources towards provisioning support and services to
the migrant workers so as to assist them in making a space of negotiation and occupational
maneuverability for themselves in their work place. By the middle of 2004, a team of people
was ready to build an organization around this development issue. Since the members of the
team had been working in South Rajasthan for over a decade and were well conversant with

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the socio-economic aspects of the area, the chosen area for intervention was South Rajasthan.
The coincidental nature of the concerned area for intervention and background of the team
provided for the launch of Aajeevika Bureau which became operational in June 2004.

A year long of work has led to the growth of organization and it is at a stage where it needs to
evaluate itself on terms of reference it has set for itself through the activities of the past year.
The organization was registered as a trust in November 2004 and hence has acquired a legal
entity now.

3. Aajeevika Bureau – the Purpose

Aajeevika Bureau was conceptualized and organized around the stated premise emerging
from the aforementioned study. “South Rajasthan is a predominantly tribal, hilly and drought-
prone region that witnesses heavy out migration within the state, to Gujarat and to
Maharashtra. The tribal and other poorer migrants find work in the hardest, bottom-end jobs
with no security or stability. It is with these highly vulnerable people- labourers and migrants-
that Aajeevika Bureau works.”

Though the vision and mission of the organization is not stated in words on any formal
document, the two months of association with the organization reveals to us a broad purpose
for which Aajeevika Bureau ‘lives’: “Providing livelihood services for rural migrants by
providing them services and support at source and destination in improving their social and
economic well being”

To achieve its broader purpose the organization has defined a set of activities to carry through
its Bureau Offices at source of migration and destination centres. The bureau offices are run
as resource and information centre and are envisioned to develop as a service delivery points
for the migrants in the area.

4. Bureau Offices and the Activities

Bureau Offices are the resource centres and information nodes situated at the headquarters of
the block or the tehsil. These centres are either run directly by Aajeevika Bureau or are
operated in collaboration with a local organization with good reputation in the concerned

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area. The Bureau Offices are entrusted with independent operations of activities envisaged by
the organization like:
• Registration (ID card issuance), preparation, tracking and communication services for
migrants;
• Identification and enrolment of registered people as potential trainee for Skill
Enhancement Camps conducted in collaboration with the training institutes in and
around Udaipur.

As of now there are other activities in addition to the above two where the organization is in
the process of setting them up or has already implemented and continued operations. These
are:
• Training and upgrading unskilled migrant labourers in new and higher value skills;
• Placement and job search for wage labourers and migrants;
• Shelter, health and financial services for migrant groups in destination centres;
• Education and training of children of families facing migration;
• Research and policy related work for protection of unorganized, migrant labourers’
rights.
These activities are presently more or less centralized (being planned and maintained by the
head office at Udaipur) and are being carried out through the head office at Udaipur. All the
listed activities have not yet been operationalized and neither the on-going activities are fully
developed, as the organization is just a year old and is facing constraints in financial
arrangements and human resources. A detailed discussion on the activities will be done in
later sections of organizational study.

5. Organizational Study
5.1 Scope

The organizational study captures the evolution and growth of activities of the organization
over the last year. It attempts to understand the context within which the activities and the
resources of the organization are established and operated. It also tries to raise certain issues
around some activities and attempts to suggest future road maps.

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5.2 Objective

The objectives with which the organizational study was undertaken are:
a) To understand the activities of Aajeevika Bureau and their operations
b) To ascertain the suitability and sustainability of the activities of Aajeevika Bureau
c) To study the environment in which the organization works and how it adapts to it

5.3 Methodology

The information regarding the organization was collected through daily observations,
interactions with the office staff, involvement in the activities and available documents we
were allowed to peruse. To study and analyze the issues concerning the organization and its
context in the best possible manner, The Universal Business Model suggested by Howard
Dowding was used. The model is justified in being used for the following reasons:

1. The environmental influences which Aajeevika Bureau senses are well captured
through this model where elements of each aspect are well distinguished.
2. The structure of the model and its three level studies facilitates demarcation of the
organizational components and helps understand their interrelationships in an easier
way, while providing enough room for accommodating observations.

5.4 Limitations

The organization is in its infancy, having completed just one year of its functioning. Within
its limited exposure to the environment, it is in the process of organizing to strike a match
between its goals, objectives and the strategies. It is evolving through constant reflection, and
is characterized by low level of complexity and formalization. An attempt to analyze the
characteristics of the organization and its structure may pose restraints on making close to
conclusive statements pertaining to our understanding at certain points where the systems are
still evolving (conceiving the organizational understanding and growth as a process). This is
owing to the ambiguity apparent to us while we were trying to identify scope of activities and
roles of the organizational staff who work in an informal and organic setup which is more
appropriately a team.

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6. The Universal Business Model

This is a generic model providing single method of analysis with its suitability to any kind of
organization at any point of its development cycle. The model is also capable of assessing the
management’s understanding and control of the organization. The model is analogical to a
gene structure and helps identify the elements in the organization which defines the
components and behaviour pertaining to the organization. The model looks at how the
organization behaves.

The Universal model has a three-layer structure.

• Aspects: An organization is defined in terms of its ten aspects which represent its
major components – identity, purpose, structure, participants, enablers, activities,
deliverables, influences, culture and performance.
• Elements: The aspects are composed of various elements
• Issues: each element is assessed using three issues
o Analysis (what the element is composed of or how it is made up and how well
it is defined, understood and quantified)
o Evaluation (how the element contributes to or affects the organization and
how it compares to a similar element in another organization)
o Strategy (how the organization approaches, deals with, or uses the element and
what plans there are for developing it for the future)

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The model can be pictorially represented as follows:

7. The Model Applied and the Findings

7.1 Identity

Aajeevika Bureau is a year old organization. While the internal composition strives to propel
the identity and recognition of the organization to its target population- the labourers and its
collaborating organizations, the labourers who have come in contact with the organization
hold varying views. Those trained and find themselves well placed in the labour market
proudly claim to be associated with the organization. At the same time, a few of them who
were not able to establish themselves well in the market find it hard to say anything about the
organization. The training and placement activity holds this potential threat to the reputation
of the organization. Apart from these actors, the labour recruiters also form opinions about

7
the organization depending on the supply of labour, the continuity of labour force with the
recruiter, the behaviour of labour or worker at the workplace and process of dealings the
organization conducts with them.

The organization is concerned about its identity with the government and its functionaries on
account of the authenticity of cards they issue and genuinity of labour force whom the
organization endorses.

7.2 Purpose

Aajeevika Bureau was formed following the study on livelihoods in Rajasthan which
revealed that the tribal south in Rajasthan was growingly dependent on wage labour and
migration for livelihood sustenance. Migration is a major source of cash income in a
household in South Rajasthan. Still the opportunities and the latitude available to the people
of this area in migration and wage labour are limited and are restricted to the lower end of job
spectrum. Due to various social and economic factors into which the workers and migrants
find themselves, their upward movement in employment or the enhancement of their
capabilities to earn more are not being possible.

Realizing the inevitability of migration as a livelihood strategy, Aajeevika Bureau was started
based on the premise that “There is a pressing need to protect the livelihoods and dignity of
the thousands of unskilled labour and migrants flowing out of South Rajasthan”

As already stated in section 3 that the organization has not yet devised vision and mission
statement for itself, here is an attempt from our side to develop those statements using our
experiences with the organization. The vision and mission statement would also ensure
maintaining coherence to the organizational direction in future when it expands.

To achieve its broader purpose the organization has been running certain activities (already
discussed in chapter 4) through the bureau offices. The commitment and honesty to the set of
activities establishes any organization into evolving its core values and key guidelines in the
future. Aajeevika Bureau and the team it consists of are persevering to organize its activities
and keep itself open to learning from the action in the field. The organization is aware that it
is working with a defined set of population- labourers and migrant workers who are

8
employed in the bottom end of the employment spectrum. It realizes that it has limitations in
associating itself with all in the labour market. There is also clarity regarding the kind of
services it intends to offer to unskilled and skilled workers.

After going through the proposal by Aajeevika Bureau to ICICI-SIG for the next three years
operations we come across certain targets they intend to achieve and their goals and
objectives. We make an attempt here to derive their vision and mission statements from their
intended objectives. The objectives are as below:

• To provide new opportunities for skill up gradation and employment, and to

contribute to a skilled and confident migrant labour force which is able to negotiate
higher returns in the labour market;

• To work towards reducing the hardship associated with migrants’ movement and
create a more positive and protected environment for migrant labour;

• To garner greater social and legal legitimacy for migrants;

• To generate new knowledge and facilitate its application in programme and policy
associated with migration.

These, the organization claims to be its mandate. Over the next three years the organization
has decided on activities (as discussed under the section 7.6) to achieve the stated mandate.
Pertaining to the activities are certain predetermined targets and outcomes which are as
follows:

1. Aajeevika Bureau will be a fully functional, regional organization in South Rajasthan

with established operations across ten blocks with a minimum registered membership
of 5,000 migrants.

2. The Bureau will have operations and functioning services in four destination clusters,
thus covering the main concentration of south Rajasthan labour in Gujarat and within
Rajasthan.

3. A pool of 1,000 migrants would have been provided skill training and/or placement

9
 opportunities through the Bureau services. A regional and inter-state network of
employment providers, private businesses and industry members will be functioning
and the Bureau would be functioning as a full-scale regional labour exchange.
4. A well-researched, tested and scaleable package of financial services including credit
products, channels, saving schemes and insurance services for migrants will be in
place.

5. A well-grounded research and policy wing working extensively on practice and

policies of positive migration – breakthrough examples of government supporting
migrants through specific services are expected to be available as well as a new policy
environment in favour or greater social and economic well being of migrants.

6. An established network of non-government organizations, private sector organizations

and state departments in collaboration with Aajeevika Bureau for providing or
financing services.

Looking at the future road map developed by the organization and reviewing the last year
processes and outcomes, we observe that the organization is very clear about the target
population, the set of activities it wants to perform and the kind of strategic path it will
require to travel for this. Keeping this in mind, it is clear that the organization has a purpose
for its existence but the formal statements as vision and mission do not exist due to logical
incrementalism approach it adopts to develop strategy. The organization has however tried to
stretch itself in diverse set of activities which may put a lot of strain on its resources and may
also pose unprecedented amount of uncertainties regarding labour supply in the market and
meeting the labour market demands which is as dynamic as the supply side.

Through our understanding of the organizational strategic direction, we come up to the vision
statement as:
“To become a fully functional, regional labour exchange and information conglomerate
dedicated to provide essential and crucial services at source and destinations to seasonal
unskilled migrant workers of South Rajasthan”

The purpose and scope of organization can be reflected in the mission statements:

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 • To provide better employment opportunities through skill building, extending
information on employment opportunities and arming up with negotiation skills to the
seasonal and distress-driven unskilled migrant force of South Rajasthan.
• To contribute in lessening and mitigating the hardships of seasonal migrant force at
the destination centers by promoting services crucial to social and economic well
being of the migrants.
• To strive towards social and economic security of migrants’ families at the sources by
extending food, health and education services to them.
• To establish networks of local organizations at source and destinations to
operationalize the intended services

The strategies to achieve the above stated objectives are the set of activities organization
engages itself into (refer section 7.6).

7.3 Structure

Being in its infancy stage, Aajeevika Bureau does not have a definite organizational structure
with a clear depiction of hierarchy and the formal line of communication. The organization
has the director as the head of the organization. There is a programme manager and there are
two field managers in addition to other staff and volunteers at the field level. Despite all the
nomenclature of hierarchy existing on paper neither the office layout nor the reporting
structure render much formalization to the organization. The various activities do ideally call
upon for functional teams or departments in an organization. This is applicable sensibly when
the scale of operations has grown so big that the capabilities of an all-round team get
exhausted. Sometimes, the constraints an organization might face are the financial and human
resources. In case of Aajeevika Bureau these constraints are present and hence organizing
teams around activities has not been done till date. The implications are on the employees and
the activities. Aajeevika bureau looks forward at organizing its activities under functional
team dealing separately with the financial services, training and placement and other relevant
departments, as proposed in the next three years of its operations and expansions.

The complexity in the structure is quite low. The vertical differentiation is very low while
looking at the range of activities in which the organization is engaged through its network
suggests high horizontal differentiation along with spatial; differentiation which envisions

11
further expansion. The expansionary targets set by the organization for the coming three years
require careful and swift shift from organic team working to a more organized team and
clarity of roles for the staff.

One of the ways in which the organization carries out its activities at bureau offices is by
collaborating with local organizations in a said block. The selected staff from the networked
organization usually reports to the Programme Manager or the Director of the organization.

7.4 Participants

The organization was registered as a trust in November 2004 and its board of trustees is:

Serial No. Name of the Trustee Profession Designation

1. Jagdish Chokar Professor (IIMA) President
Krishnavtar Sharma Rural Development Secretary
2.
Manager
Rajiv Khandelwal Rural Development Treasurer
3.
Manager
Sudhir Katiyar Rural Development Member
4.
Consultant
Sachin Sachdeva Rural Development Member
5.
Manager

The Secretary is responsible for looking after the managerial activities of the organization
and fulfills the duties of President in his absence. The Secretary also looks after income-
expenditure flows and record-keeping in the organization.

The treasurer is responsible for the financial arrangements and keeping the financial records
up to date and makes arrangements for audit.

At Aajeevika Bureau the Secretary of the trust is the Programme Manager and is responsible
for operational management and monitoring of all field operations and teams. The treasurer
of the trust is the director of the organization and is the strategy manager for the organization.
He is also involved in preparing proposals and budget for the organizational activities.
Overall, the director is the major resource accumulator for the organization. The kind of
professional network he has established over a period of decade of his work in the area helps
the organization in many ways like professional editing of communication materials and
analytical reports.

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There are two field managers looking after the operations of the bureau offices and planning
and control of field activities like conducting summer camps for rural children in villages
from where migration outflow is heavy, registration of migrant workers, identification of
potential trainees and co-ordination with the volunteers. These field managers are masters in
social work from an institute in Udaipur.

Ms. Rajul Bharti is a part time employee as a placement co-ordinator and fulfills the duties
attached to the training and placement of selected young people from the concerned area of
operations.

There is an Office Executive who is responsible for day to day operations and administration
of the head office at Udaipur. A part time accountant maintains the account books, journals
and ledgers. The organization uses Tally package for its account keeping.

The organization also employs bureau office assistants from the local area at two bureau
offices. These people are taking care of the registration process, master file keeping and
migrant record keeping. Additionally these people also disseminate information regarding the
bureau offices and build relationships with the migrant labourers. They report to the field
managers. Periodically they visit the head office at Udaipur and report directly to the Director
or the Programme Manager.

At Kotda bureau office the operations are carried over in collaboration with a local
organization Adivasi Vikas Manch. One employee of the Manch is a paid employee of
Aajeevika Bureau and has same roles and duties as that of bureau office assistants.

To keep the registration and tracking services up to date the organization recruits volunteers
in the respective villages and panchayats. These volunteers report to the field managers or the
bureau office assistants. The issue with the volunteers is their performance and continuity
with the organization. Apart from completing registration and tracking services for the
organization’s bureau offices, the volunteers are also representatives of the organization at the
grassroots level. The reputation of the organization with the rural people and their willingness
to foster relationship with the bureau offices is heavily dependent on the behaviour of
volunteers.

The other networking organizations of Aajeevika Bureau are:

13
 1. Prayatna Sansthan in Relmagra block of Rajasamand district in Rajasthan
2. Jan Chetna Sansthan in Abu Road, Sirohi district
3. Sangam Sansthan at Hayla village in Udaipur district
4. Jatan Sansthan in Dungarpur district

These and many other small local organizations support Aajeevika Bureau in carrying out the
activities in the area. Aajeevika Bureau as a team duly recognizes these organizations and
nurtures good relationships with them.

At destination centres of the migrants Aajeevika Bureau is in the process of establishing

professional network with organizations like Pratham (at Surat and Ahmedabad) and SAHAS
at Surat.

Aajeevika Bureau is in a critical need to draw resources and long lasting networking with
relevant and performing organizations at source and destination centres of the migrants. This
will surely facilitate effective and efficient operations of the various services and activities
undertaken by the organization.

The work of organization does have influence on migrants’ families and hence has a sense of
duty towards them too. The livelihood services aimed at by the organization are bound to
influence and get influenced by the household, workplace and society of the migrant workers
and wage labourers.

The training and placement services achieve their completeness by support from the labour
recruiters who extend help in provisioning apprenticeship for the trainees of Aajeevika
Bureau and also are absorbers of the trained youth. The nature of networking and relationship
with the employers and recruiters will have a direct bearing on the effectiveness and
sustainability of the training and placement services of the organization.

7.5 Enablers

Aajeevika Bureau is being run in a rented house. The office is well equipped with computers,
printer and other crucial communication hardware. This facilitates the organization to be self
sufficient in terms of facilities required. The costs on communication and publishing are also
in control this way.

14
The skills of the people in the organization are pertaining to different aspects of development.
The Programme Manager has experience in forestry, Natural Resource Management and
majorly Microfinance. The director of the organization has a wide base of experiences with
varied organizations on different issues. One of the field managers is a fresh graduate of
Udaipur School of Social Work and the other field manager (an alumnus of Udaipur School
of Social Work) but draws from a rich experience in awareness programmes and counseling
to HIV/AIDS patients.

The organization with its one year of operations has not acquired a clear area of competency.
However, through a learning experience with the six skill enhancement trainings conducted,
the organization has built confidence in selection, training and placement of workers in the
labour market. A gradual understanding of the labour market is also being accumulated at the
organizational level by the staff. It is yet to take lessons in networking with organizations at
the destination centres where flexibility will be a required skill along with a good negotiation
power. This will also enable the organization to develop clarity regarding its purpose and
evolve for itself vision and mission.

The organization has received a total of Rs. 26 lacs as funds for operations and activities from
of India Country-level Development Marketplace (IDM) project promoted by World Bank
(Rs.9 lacs) towards innovative programmes in development world and ICICI-SIG (Rs.17
lacs). At present Rs. 4 lacs remain to be utilized. Fund utilization (Appendix A) reflects
under utilization of funds in destination services (the financial statements in the appendix are
not an up to date and the facts reported here are based on discussion with the Director) and
migration support fund. This is due to concentration of organizational efforts in speeding up
and expanding activities at the source centres. Also the financial services to migrants like pity
loans for food security at village home while on migration, destination establishment and job
search expenses etc, are at a very raw stage of their development as a product and hence the
organization has demonstrated conservationist approach towards loan disbursement to a very
few beneficiaries, most of whom are organization’s trained migrants.

7.6 Activities

This aspect of Aajeevika Bureau is the real indicator of what organization is doing and how is
it learning the issues related to its activities. It also provides the rationale for the team work in
the organization and lets one understand the stage of growth into which the organization is.

15
The envisioned activities are:

• Registration (ID card issuance), preparation, tracking and communication services for
migrants;
• Training and upgrading unskilled migrant labourers in new and higher value skills;
• Placement and job search for wage labourers and migrants;
• Shelter, health and financial services for migrant groups in destination centres;
• Education and training of children of families facing migration;
• Research and policy related work for protection of unorganized, migrant labourers’
rights.

Almost all the activities are operational except shelter and health services and the last one in
the list above.

The processes encompassing these activities need a close look if a proper understanding
about the working of the organization and the related issues are to be analyzed and evaluated.
The processes are discussed in a sequence in accordance with the listing of the activities done
previously.

The registration begins with the migrant worker (who approaches the organization’s bureau
offices at block headquarters after interactions with field workers and volunteers, or through
references from another migrant fellow of the village) filling up a fixed format form which
captures the personal, migration related, occupational and household information about the
person willing to get registered. The eligibility criteria set by the organization for registration
of a migrant worker is a past record of migration for more than three months by the applicant
who is above 18 years of age. The form is attached as Appendix B. The form once filled also
requires authentication from the registering personnel and the sarpanch of the panchayat to
which the person to be registered belongs. Once the process is complete, the person is given a
registration number. The details of the person are also recorded in a master file kept at the
bureau offices. One rupee was being charged for the registration form from the willing
persons. At a later point the decision was made in consensus with the staff that the
registration fee be five rupees. This change was not recorded anywhere and the decision was
based on the idea that a higher charge will involve some stake of the person being registered.
ID card issuance has now been computerized and the costs of production are to be covered by

16
charging Rs. 25. This will also create the stake of card holders and they will take care in
handling the cards. The assumptions made in deciding upon the charges for these services are
to be empirically tested through feedback from the bureau offices. However, a format for
receipt of the payments so received need to be developed and implemented so as to assure
accountability and transparency at the bureau offices. A copy of a sample ID card is also
attached in the Appendix C.

Training is a well developed activity at Aajeevika Bureau. The willing youths apply through a
fixed format application form. The form is scrutinized and the organization engages itself into
face to face interaction with the applicants and upon being confident about the applicant and
his suitability for skill training a group of trainees is formed and a professionally designed
training module is imparted to the trainees. The educational requirements of a trainee are at
least a pass in seventh standard. The group strength for training is kept at an acceptable level
of 20 to 25. A brief of the training activity in the last year is presented here.

All six training programmes (imparted to 118 migrant youths) have been entirely residential
and have involved designing new methods and processes of learning and skill-building given
the special needs of the migrant groups. The training programmes have combined intensive,
technical skill building with literacy and life skill education geared to improve the
professional opportunities and confidence of migrants. By the end of the first year, the
Bureau has gained good experience in all dimensions of training and placement for migrants
in different sectors. The training has covered five skill areas of construction – masonry,
carpentry, plumbing, house wiring and welding.

The 67 trainees came from Gogunda and Kotda blocks and were mainly tribal or of
Scheduled Caste belonging to poor households, with little or no land, dependent on labour
for their major livelihood. By selection criteria the trainees should have cleared the seventh
grade (this condition was relaxed for masonry) and should have had some prior migration
experience. Finally, the trainee should have the demonstrable ability and commitment to be
trained and stay on campus without wages for the entire duration. While the first batch
comprised all category of migrants, the second batch included those in urgent need of
employment, but unable to migrate long distances on account of adverse family conditions. A

17
specialised training was organised to equip them with skills that can be used through
relocation closer to their homes. The third batch was a group specially selected from the very
remote and primarily rural-to-rural migration driven Kotda block.

The skill training typically begins with an initial assessment of individual performance and
aptitude, based on which an option for specialization is offered to the trainees. The batch is
divided into work groups for each sector and allotted sites on the Polytechnic campus where
they had to construct, fit, repair and fabricate as part of practical, hands-on training. While
the skill training was in progress, a number of civil contractors, architects and masons were
brought to the campus to provide feedback and technical inputs.

Apart from skills of construction, the participants were equipped with information,
knowledge and techniques that would enable them to negotiate, more effectively than at
present; with the labour market and with employers and help them gain more confidence in
urban settings. The modules included: literacy and numeral skills, health and hygiene,
labour laws and workers’ rights, information about the market, work ethics and financial
management, personality development. A number of local agencies were brought on board to
give training in these areas drawing upon their areas of expertise.

The three batches in construction training helped the Bureau to expand its network to civil
and labour contractors, sanitary and electric contractors, master masons, and steel
fabricators, builders and architects, who became the employers of the trained youth. The
network is strong in Udaipur and is now rapidly growing in towns of Gujarat – Ambaji,
Khedbrahma and Palanpur – which are the destinations of communities from blocks that
border the state.

Domestic services: In collaboration with Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Udaipur (which has a Home
Science portfolio) two 20-day residential training programmes were organised for women
commuter- and migrant-labourers from rural areas around Udaipur. Named ‘Daksha’, the

18
training was for batches of women selected based on their financial need and willingness to
work as trained full-time domestic help in Udaipur homes. Urban homes are tough
employers and pay their domestic helpers poorly. Women constitute the majority of this work
force; they are paid abysmally low wages because of poor bargaining ability and, frequently,
poor skills especially at the entry level. Domestic helpers are amongst the least organised of
labour sectors, hence, any form of collective negotiations for wages or security does not ever
occur. The Daksha programme was an opportunity for the Aajeevika Bureau to learn about
the domestic services labour market and its demands in terms of skills and employability for
women.

Aajeevika Bureau’s focus was on identifying tribal women from poor and difficult
backgrounds who come, or wish to come, to Udaipur seeking work. The women were selected
from villages within commuting distance of Udaipur city. Some prior experience of working
in homes (as cleaners/sweepers) was another basis for selection. A number of women who
were finally selected after a two-month long process were those facing difficult personal
situations on their domestic fronts and struggling with acute poverty. Typically, they have
little skills in urban home management and remain restricted to cleaning, sweeping and
dishwashing, if employed at homes. Due to their social and cultural backgrounds and very
little education, they are not considered suitable for higher niche services, like cooking,
childcare, security, personal assistance, etc. in homes. Daksha explored the possibility of
upgrading rural migrant women in the urban domestic services sector by “professionalising”
their skills and personalities. It explored the urban home sector for (a) more dignified work
conditions, and (b) better incomes for commuting and migrant rural women.

The components of the “Daksha” training comprised cooking, storekeeping, housekeeping,

child-care, use of home appliances and guest relations. Associated sessions included
grooming, health, personal hygiene, professional ethics, legal aid, self-defense and financial
management.

Hotel and tourism services: As part of the skill training component of the Bureau a batch of

19
young, tribal men was trained in hotel and tourism services. This 20-day programme was
conducted by an experienced housekeeping manager from a renowned, government-owned
hotel in Udaipur. The training hoped to get a new start for young tribal migrants who work in
very poor conditions in Gujarat highway dhabas, low-end hotels or food processing
factories.

(Italicized material’s source: Livelihood Services for Rural Migrants: A Proposal to

ICICI–SIG to Support Testing, Learning and Rapid Growth of Migrant Support
Services in South Rajasthan and Gujarat, September 2005 – August 2008)

There is a horde of learning arising from the training and placement activities of the
organization. However, the major concerns arising out of the activity are:

• Factors instrumental in enabling the trained youth to get established in the labour
market with the recruiters.
• Feasibility of sustaining the training keeping in consideration the follower nature of
the organization as a labour supplier in the market.

The organization is also acting as a labour exchange wherein it provides employment

opportunity related information to job seeking workers and arranges for their placement with
an identified and reliable recruiter. Recently it arranged jobs for seven young workers from
Gogunda block in Udaipur with a leaf plate making unit. The workers were supposed to take
up a small training at the machine for making plates and were being paid Rs. 1500 per month
supplemented by residence and cooking facilities. The boys left the work place in the same
evening when they were hired, without informing the recruiter or Aajeevika Bureau’s staff.
The programme manager of the organization initiated a probe into the matter with the boys
and their families. This kind of incident is a risk which the organization needs to face and be
able to handle the situation positively.

The financial services come under Migration Support Fund and hence will be discussed under
the aspect called deliverables.

The education programme for the children of migrating families was organized in
collaboration with the local organizations. This programme was designed as a summer camp
for the children in the villages who are a potential migrant population. The aim of the

20
programme is to institutionalize the education as a supplementary module, develop vocational
skills among the children and hence delay their entry into the labour market. The components
of the camp were:

1. Library establishment at the schools

2. Vocational training in soap making, clay modeling, crafts and other such productive
activities
3. Mobilizing and preparing families to take initiation in child’s education
4. Games and recreational activities

The period of the camp was around two months. The camp was run by instructors deputed by
Aajeevika Bureau. Monitoring was done by the field manager. This activity faces hurdles in
form of children’s household situation compelling him/her to work on wage or migrate; the
distance of houses from the school inhibits children from attending the camp during summers
and the children not getting a congenial ambience back at home to put in personal effort in
enforcing the education and skill imparted at the camp.

Destination services: Destination services of the Bureau were conceived keeping in mind the
urgent need to reduce the hardship of seasonal migrants at their destination points. During
the year it was planned to understand well the destination conditions including work and
living conditions and design some pilot interventions in partnership with organisations in
these locations. A study of three important destination clusters was conducted which
provided important action insights.

Of the three destinations studied, the Bureau has initiated its presence in two, including the
textile market of Surat and the cotton-wheat belt of Sabarkantha – Banaskantha districts.

Child and adolescent labour in Surat: Surat is a complex setting, bursting at the seams with
people from across the country. It has the largest textile market of the country and it is almost
entirely run by migrants from Rajasthan at all levels of processes and operations. At the
bottom end of this market are young children from Gogunda, Kumbhalgarh and Khamnor
blocks of Udaipur and Rajasamand districts, who are rounded up by agents and contractors
in their villages and brought to Surat to work in shops for cutting, folding and head-loading
cloth. The children put in long hours of work under arduous conditions, and have a few
options to return to their villages.

21
The Bureau gained entry into the textile market through Pratham, a non-government
organisation that has set up non-formal education centres for migrant children working in
the market. The initial visits to the market made it clear that it in order to work with this
category of labour it will be essential to take labour contractors and agents into confidence.
The nature of activities will need to be fairly innocuous at the start. In collaboration with
Pratham, the Bureau started a Sunday club for children. This club is managed by two
Pratham staff-volunteers and its activities are mainly recreational. The club has been
running for nearly four months now and it has gradually become a rallying point for children
and adolescents across several shops. Typically the Sunday club has some educational
activities and play, visits to interesting sights and creative work. It has helped in nurturing
children’s confidence and has created an environment of fun and relaxation among a group
that works in extreme conditions.

The Sunday activity has also been the rallying point of building contacts with contractors
and agents, all of who are native residents of Udaipur and Rajsamand district. These agents
go back to their villages and bring children and are paid a commission on the labour they
supply to the shops. They have to look after the well being of the children and are responsible
for their return as well. Many children grow up in the market and some become small time
contractors and labour agents themselves.

An entry has been made in Surat and the Bureau is ready to design long-term interventions
with other categories of labour here.

Agriculture labour in Palanpur-Himmatnagar belt: The agriculturally prosperous

Palanpur-Himmatnagar belt in north Gujarat is the destination of thousands of seasonal
migrants from the tribal blocks of Kotda and Abu Road. The area witnesses relocation of
entire families for five to eight months in a year. They work as farm labourers, or contract
labour rounded up by a network of labour agents. This is a severely exploited section of rural
migrants often cheated of wages and living in very poor conditions scattered on farms.

In collaboration with Astha Sansthan, and its affiliate, Adivasi Vikas Manch, an
information and support centre for migrant farm labour has been set up in Visnagar in north
Gujarat. Visnagar is an important junction for migrant labour coming in from across the
Rajasthan border. The Centre is starting registration services and will soon start
communication, education and health facilities for migrant farm labour scattered in this

22
region. Gradually, it is hoped that the Centre will take up more substantive issues like, unfair
contract practices, indebtedness and poor remuneration. At the source side in Kotda, the
Adivasi Vikas Manch and the Bureau have started migrant registration and photo identity
services.

(Italicized material’s source: Livelihood Services for Rural Migrants: A Proposal to

ICICI–SIG to Support Testing, Learning and Rapid Growth of Migrant Support
Services in South Rajasthan and Gujarat, September 2005 – August 2008)

7.7 Deliverables

The services delivered by the organization have already been discussed in previous sections.
The organization has a major deliverable in the form of migration support fund.

Migration Support Fund

A large number of people from many households move out of their villages to places where
their labour earns a livelihood for them and their family. The migration labour is a major
contributor to their annual household cash incomes. It is found from the studies, in the places
from where people migrate out for work that many people are unable to leave their origins for
work despite their need and wish, due to financial constraints and concerns of family’s food
security while they migrate. This stimulated the formulation of a service package that could
enable these people in moving out and staying back for work at destinations, providing
sufficient absorption of their labour force, without any fear or financial constraints. This
entailed emergence of appropriate financial services for the migrant workers. Migration
Support Fund at Aajeevika Bureau is such an evolutionary outcome arising out of the
genuinely felt monetary needs of migrants of South Rajasthan.

Many a times the migrant workers move out by loaning in money from money lenders
(mostly on collateral) at high interest rate or by accepting advance from contractors which in
most cases strangulates the workers and their free mobility to better employment
opportunities is resisted. The Migration Support Fund is a proper financial package tailored to
lift off any kind of hindrance or vulnerability faced by the migrant workers.

This is the first year of the operations of this fund aided by the SCALE programme of
ARAVALI and ICICI-SIG. The experiences from the field are few and naïve, yet initial

23
learning from the field endorse practicality of the following financial products:

1. Worker Skill Enhancement Loan

2. Newly Trained/ Skilled Labour Placement Support Loan
3. Travel Loan
4. Family Food Security Loan
5. Source Advance Consolidation Loan
6. Tools Loan
7. Labour-Intensive Enterprise Financing Loan
8. Life/Health Insurance Schemes

Worker Skill Enhancement Loan

This loan intends to promote willingness among the young workers to opt for skill
enhancement training. These people do not have the resources to pay the full expenses for the
training they seek. In such a case, the total training cost per person can be split into two
components of 60 percent grant and 40 percent loan. The loan recovery will begin later to the
placement of the trained person in the appropriate job.

Newly Trained/ Skilled Labour Placement Support Loan

The legacy of bondage to employers’ control and servitude to unskilled jobs affects the
bargaining and negotiating capabilities of the workers. Providing them with a strategy to
place themselves in advantageous and beneficial positions in the labour market is a critical
component of the training being imparted. This loan will make an attempt to achieve the
aforesaid for the workers.

Travel Loan

Many people do not migrate due to lack of money for the travel and expenses to be met at the
destination in periods of job search. The requirement exacted from the field is for an easily
accessible and adequate loan.

Family Food Security Loan

24
Preparedness to migrate involves securing food availability for the family being left behind.
This frees the worker’s mind and enables him/her to stay back at the destination for longer
period of time and earn for more work days.
Source Advance Consolidation Loan

The migrants leave their homes either with no cash at the disposal of the family members or
they are forced into taking loans at high interest rates from money lenders or advances from
their recruiters. In case of advances remaining unpaid for long, there is a high probability of
the workers falling into the entanglements of servitude and debt bondage. This loan product
is conceptualized to help the workers break away the shackles of debt entrapment. As to what
amount can be loaned out under this category is a matter of research and study.

Tools Loan

Despite accumulating skills at the jobs and working at the local level on their own, many
workers remain semi-skilled for long period of time. The main reason for this being non-
ownership of required tools. And the earnings from the semi-skilled job do not provide the
latitude to the workers to purchase their own tools. In order to help the semi-skilled move
vertically up in the job or to support skilled workers in getting self-employed, a loan product
to provide for necessary tools is proposed.

Labour-Intensive Enterprise Financing Loan

For most of the families and societies dependent on labour and migration for their livelihood,
their financial positions hinder their enterprising ventures. Moreover, all these people either
do not possess the basic skills required in an entrepreneur or they do not have the inclination
for entrepreneurship. Consequently, in the particular social context, availability of a regular
earning labour work is a major concern for these people.

Building on this pretext, Aajeevika Bureau’s experience endorses promotion of labour-

intensive enterprises where limited capital is aided by the self-employed labour. To provide
full ownership of enterprises in the hands of the entrepreneur, this loan product envisions the
design of the product which wipes off any ‘exploitative’ design of capital loaning to these
people through traditional credit sources.

25
Life/Health Insurance Schemes

The class of labour employed in hazardous and dangerous works face unbridled threat to their
health and life. Insurance policies catering to cover these threats are a welcome set of
financial products for the labour class. But the labour class finds itself in a position which
does not provide accessibility and continuity in these products. The circular nature of labour
movement and irregular income patterns of labourers open a plethora of restraints on workers
to avail of insurance schemes. Keeping in view the critical requirement of insurance products
and the inaccessibility to these, owing to the factors stated earlier, a product range to be
launched in this category requires attending to certain concern areas, namely:

1) Insurance schemes being commensurate with the amount and intensity of risk borne
by the workers at the job.

2) Legitimacy of the amount of premiums calculated.

3) Amount of paperwork involved at each stage and the access to right, timely and
complete information regarding the schemes.

4) Cover of health care facilities and involved risk.

These loans are currently being made only at source and not at the destinations as destination
work is still at its early stages. An important agenda in the forthcoming phase is the testing
the diverse use of the Fund. In addition, linking seasonal migrants to some form of insurance,
especially against accidents and injury, is a priority. It is important, as well, to experiment
with short-term and safe saving schemes for seasonal migrants, particularly at their
destinations. The importance of a formal remittance service for this category of migrants does
not yet seem well established and needs further enquiry.

7.8 Influences

26
The skill enhancement provided to the migrant workers and their placement can be restricted
to a large extent in the future for various reasons like:
• Unacceptability of trained labourers at the desired level of employment in the labour
market.
• Inability to negotiate for higher wages to the trained workers and hence induced
mistrust for the organization among the workers.
• Future pool of trained workers and their restricted absorption in the labour market due
to factors like single skill possession or changes in demand for skills in the economy.
• High training cost/investment and risk associated due to huge liabilities (the unplaced
pool of trained workers – a source of discontent)

The financial and human resource constraints can slow down or inhibit activity sphere and its
expansion. At the destination the services and activity sphere could not be expanded due to
logistical issues owing to distance between the organization’s head office and the
destinations. Also the concentration of available time and resources towards expansion of
activities and services at the sources made destination activity to suffer in terms of initiation
and growth.

The ID cards being issued to individual migrants poses a potential threat. The best of the
procedures and precautions in issuing the card cannot discard the fact that a single reported
misbehaviour from migrants can mar the reputation of Aajeevika Bureau.

The greatest opportunity to which the organization can look up to is better and growing
network with local rural development organizations and support of government functionaries.
The organization may encash upon the opportunity being provided by financial bodies like
ICICI which are in search of rural market base for their financial products. A strategic
approach to the negotiations in striking a deal for independent and customized financial
services to be offered to the migrant labourers and their families is a crucial aspect to be
explored if the financial services need a boost up.

7.9 Culture

Aajeevika Bureau is too young an organization to possess a unique culture. However, the
work culture existing at the organization is very intensive and the staffs are on their own to

27
organize and prioritize their work. The reporting is yet mostly verbal and the focus on
activities has trivialized the reporting part of the work. Though the management emphasizes
the documentation and formalization of work being done, there is no force or pressure to
which the people are subjected to in the organization.

The organization is yet to evolve rules and formal procedures to be followed for
organizational and managerial activities.

As a start up organization Aajeevika Bureau is a good platform for its young professionals to
learn about organizational capabilities in addition to applying skills in an innovative
development intervention.

7.10 Performance

At the beginning of the first year of its operations in 2004, the Bureau expected to achieve
some milestones. The following is the progress against those envisaged milestones. However,
there is a need to evolve a better performance measurement in terms of the effectiveness of
services delivered by the organization.

Expected Outcome Progress

A fully functional Aajeevika Bureau
facility offering registration, tracking, legal
and information services to migrants and
labourers from Gogunda.
Actionable studies and research outputs on
labour and migration patterns of six blocks.
A batch of trained 20 to 25 tribal migrant youth
in new labour niches like plumbing, wiring,
masonry, catering and domestic services.
A well tested training and placement module
A Bureau office has been set up and is fully
functional in Gogunda. An office has also
been set up in Kotda and is ready for
launch in Kumbhalgarh and Abu Road
blocks.
Block level studies of five blocks have
been undertaken together with a set of
issue-based studies on destinations,
migrants’ policies and women of migrant
households. A study on financial flows has
been reactivated.
The SIG support was used to undertake
skill training and placement of the first
batch of 27 migrant youth. In rapid
succession, five more training batches were
organized for migrant youth in
construction, hotel and domestic services
sector. The total number of trained migrants
now stands at 118.
This module is now ready given the

28
and institutional arrangement suitable for skill experience of training and placement of
up gradation of seasonal migrant labour. over 100 migrants. The placement service
is mainly functional for skilled and trained
migrants.
Functioning destination services in at least two Destination study has been completed and
locations in collaboration with local contacts have been made in Surat and
organisations.
Palanpur region. In both locations,
activities have begun including a centre for
migrant farm labour in Visnagar.
A tested range of financial services and A total of 72 migrants have been extended
products with at least 50 migrant labourers and loans for a wide range of migration
their families.
facilitation and livelihood related needs.
A strong and growing contact base of non- There is a particularly strong networking
government organisations, businesses and with organizations in Surat, such as Sahas,
labour employers in destination centres of
Ahmedabad, Surat and Udaipur.
Adhikar, CSS, Pratham, Navsarjan and
Ambika Trust apart from local Rajasthani
youth clubs and associations. The network
with businesses and employers is the
strongest in Udaipur and is now growing in
north Gujarat towns.
A strong and growing contact base with This partnership base has been firmly
potential partners in migration source centres established. Our partner organizations
viz. in six blocks of south Rajasthan.
include Astha, Adivasi Vikas Manch, Jan
Chetna, Prayatna, Vagad Mazdoor and
Jatan.
But the concerns of organization are expected to revolve around some crucial questions it
should raise internally; keeping in consideration the mandate it subjects itself to. The
following section deals with what organization has acquired in form of the learning and what
the organization needs to look into in order to fill the identified gaps. In short, the following
section casts a critical look at the achievements and learning of the organization.
[

8. Issues of Concern

It is accepted that the spectrum of activities designed by the organization have high degree of
relevance to the migrants. Yet the concern is how sustainable is the up gradation of skills of
the migrating workers and other willing youths. While talking about the sustainability of this
activity, it would be imperative to consider the kind of player Aajeevika Bureau can be in the
highly dynamic market of unorganized labour. Aajeevika Bureau aims to up scale its
activities and target 1000 migrants for skill enhancement training. It envisions its
transformation into a regional labour exchange with operations in ten blocks of South
Rajasthan and four destination centres.

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To gain this scale would require heavy investments into networking with the relevant
organizations, technology, and risk absorption capability in face of failure on the front of
inability to place the trained pool of migrants in positions of high returns from their work.
What kind of threat does it entail for the organization’s strategic position in its context?

These risks and cautions raise a fundamental question: “Should Aajeevika Bureau continue
with its training activity?” This would also call for readiness with a contingency strategy.
Exploring the alternatives of providing skill training is a thinkable option available to the
organization. And the earlier this issue is attended to, the better are the prospects of the
organization to emerge as an effective organization.

8.1 Our Reflections

The organizational understanding component was an eye opener to the minute details which
operate through organizational processes set into action by the workforce deputed for it. How
an organization comes to existence? How does it evolve itself? How does it behave, respond,
learn, unlearn and develops its pathway to the desired goal? The spectrum of probes so raised
was quite well answered during the value adding period of nine weeks. While we were trying
to look at the organization from a perspective of management, we also realized the
importance of human interactions and resulting processes in the conduct of an organization.
The constitution of the team is of utmost importance in the initial days of the organization
and the future is very much a reflection of the quality of work generated by the team during
the infancy stage of organization’s life cycle. At Aajeevika Bureau, the human resource is a
convergence of people from varied backgrounds and possessing multidimensional
experiences. The informal and organic nature of communication channels existing within the
organizational team is a characterization of the start up organization. The organization is
making a transition from its entrepreneurial stage to collective stage where the
characterization can be drawn on points of clarity of goals and objectives but lack of
organizational components with defined boundaries of existence.

Reflections on Activities

1. Supplementary Education Camps (Refer to section 7.6 on page 21): This effort of
Aajeevika Bureau was a pilot test to gain insights on the possibility of institutionalizing such
programme modules aiming at delaying the entry of children of migrating families into the

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labour market. At the same time the module aims at equipping the children with various skills
which can be later be used by them in pursuing enterprise development for independent
livelihood generation. The major concern here can be of sustained participation of the
children and their families in these camps given the economic context of the families and the
education quality being imparted to the children in schools. How the skills being imparted at
this stage will be kindled and promoted? How can the financial independence be assured at
the later stages to these potential populations of migrants? These concerns will emerge as the
efforts of the organization take roots at the village level and will be potential challenges to the
realization of organizational objectives.

2. Skill Enhancement and Training: The details of this activity have been extensively
covered under section 7.6. What does the activity entail for the organization? What promises
does it implicitly and explicitly make to the migrant workers? How will labour supply so
being organized going to meet the dynamic demand on labour supply?

Obviously, to the organization providing training to the migrants is itself a challenge in itself.
But the bigger challenge which can loom large over the organization will be that of relevance
of a skill being induced into a migrant worker over a period of time, assurance of sufficient
number of work days of employment, ensuring better wages post to the training and
practicality of imparting technical and negotiation skills to the migrant workers within a short
period of time in a closed environment of a campus with often considerate and mild
instructors (labour recruiters are often rough and heavily demanding) around. Does
organization then want to continue with this activity? Or should workers be provided multiple
skills? Is there a possibility of arranging skill enhancement programmes through
apprenticeship under a skilled worker working at the destination?

These are the definitive decision points where the organization needs to look at what it aims
to do and what it can practically achieve in the dynamic labour environment which is also its
immediate and extended environment. To adopt a conservative approach would mean putting
a hold on this activity for the time being and closely observe at the behaviour of already
trained and placed migrant workers in the market. This will be a proper feedback to the
organization revealing the relevance and utility of its training services and it will also
generate data regarding the labour market behaviour and related dynamics in terms of wage
rate determination, labour demand volume and nature of work available. Having this

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approach would also give Aajeevika Bureau the needed time to put the required amount of
quality laden services and delivery mechanisms in place.

PART - B

1. Aajeevika Bureau Migration Database (ABMD)

An organization can always be better understood from its people and the kind of activities
they are involved in. The need at the organization was to organize its activities to give it a
sustainable dimension. Hence came the need to computerize its activities or better to say the
services that it is undertaking to facilitate the local labour and migrants. Though the
Aajeevika Bureau Migration Database (ABMD) preparation was assigned to us as a part of
the Organizational Action Component, but as it relates more to the understanding of the
organization, it has been dealt in detail here in the Organizational Understanding Report.

Before getting into the software part of the database, we needed to get into the design part of
the database. The questions that came to our mind were like, what form of data would be
required to be collected and why and how those data would be relevant. Also we had to take
into consideration the scalability and the usability of the data. So, for all these and for getting
the organizational perspective of the data we started interacting with the head office and
bureau centres’ staff members. We also got the opportunity to interact with the field staff and
volunteers and the wage labour and migrants. This gave us also the insight as to how the data
were being collected and what sorts of responses in what form were being received. This
proved to be of very much help in understanding the issues for identification of data sources,
data itself, its gathering and architecture and then at last the data analysis and its processing.

So, after about 20 days of requirement determination through field visits and participation in
organizational activities, analysis and logical design of the database we moved for its
physical design. We had to constantly concentrate on the ‘usability’ and ‘scalability’ of the
database. “Usability” refers to the user friendliness of the software as regards data entry, data
retrieval and of course the use of data for report generation. Thus, the database should be able
to produce customized queries and outputs. The “Scalability” hints towards the future up
gradation of the database for having additional features.

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For all these we used “The Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC)”. The SDLC is a
methodology that was used to ensure that the database system is designed and implemented
in a methodical, logical and step-by-step approach. There are six steps, known as phases, in
the SDLC:
• The Preliminary Investigation Phase
• The Analysis Phase
• The Design Phase
• The Development Phase
• The Implementation Phase
• The Maintenance Phase

Each phase of the SDLC created a tangible product or deliverable. These deliverables acted
as milestones against which we judged the progress and continuing appropriateness of the
data and its usability. All the six phases in the SDLC helped us form the plan of taking the
organization’s requirement and translating them into the finished application. All these
resulted revision of the existing forms for
• Registration of the Labour;
• ID cards Issue;
• Training and
• Placement
The changed format accommodates the sought data. A format of the revised forms is attached
as appendix to the report.

The database ‘Aajeevika Bureau Migration Database’, (ABMD) has been designed entirely
by using Microsoft Access software. Microsoft Excel has been used for importing the data
from the Access file and filtering data for customized and quick report generation. This
would also take care of the staffs who did not find themselves comfortable with MS-Access
The data imported to MS Excel would be applied ‘Auto Data Filter’ function and then
customized filtering could be done. The ABMD is having mainly these four components:
• Registration Section
• I-Card Section
• Training Section
• Placement Section

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Each section has further got three sub-sections. These are
i) New Data Entry, Old Data Edit and Data Delete Components;
ii) Preview of the existing Data and
iii) Print options for the various forms.

All kinds of data entry and data retrieving operations are possible by using the functions
designed for the sub sections. The database ABMD also has the provision for pre
specification of spellings for some of the sections. This section gains importance because of
the need for having standard spellings, say for name of the villages or for name of the
occupations. This would help avoid ambiguous entries of the same name of the villages. For
example, if the name of the village is Haila; then some may enter it as Haiela or Hayla or
likewise. This confusion would get removed when the data entry person has got choices
before him to select from the existing set of data. If the name to be entered does not exist in
the list then that can be added through the Spellings Section.

The various interfaces have been shown in the appendix. The I-Card section of the database is
very dynamic in nature. Dynamic in the sense that it can be used both in the case of when
Aajeevika Bureau is issuing I-Cards on its own to the wage labourers and migrants and also
when it is doing the same in collaboration with some other organization. The logo section in
the I-Card has been kept dynamic to address this issue. Also the Sarpanch, the authorizing
person has got a section for the scanned seal and signature. The same way is done for the seal
and signature of collaborating organizations’ head.

The I-card contains two numbers to identify the person at any point of time. First one is the
Registration Number like “UDKT00020” and second one is I-Card Number like “KT00284”.
Both the numbers are unique to each person. As regards the registration number, the first two
letters denotes the name of the district where the registration has been done, e.g. here “UD”
(in “UDKT00020”) refers to Udaipur District. The nest two letters denote the block, e.g.
“KT” here denotes the Kotra block where the person has been registered. And the last five
digits denote the registration number, thereby having the scope of registering 99,999 persons
from each block. The I-card also follows similar kind of system. The first two letters in the I-
card number i.e. “KT” in “KT00284” denotes the name of the block. And the last five digits
denote the I-card serial number of the person. This number does not relate to any specific
block but is the overall serial number. In other words, if the last I-card number issued by the

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organization is “KT00284”, then it means that a total of 284 I-cards have been issued till now,
irrespective of the block. This keeps the scope of issuing a total of 99,999 cards. These I-
Cards are valid for a period of two years. This policy has been adopted by the organization so
as to keep tracks of the persons to whom I-Cards have been issued to them and also provide
for revision or addition of new skills or change of address at the time of renewal. The I-cards
carries the name and block level office’s address with telephone number so that any one can
contact the office in case of emergencies or for any sort of information. The number can also
be used for sending messages to the families of the migrants.

At present the database developed by us lacks the required level of full-fledged automation.
This can be done by using Visual Basic or some other high end software after understanding
the next level needs of the organization as regards database management and also the
loopholes in the existing ABMD workings. Thus in this way after evaluating the future
scalability and decentralization needs, this database can be upgraded for the next level use.

After developing the database we installed it at the head office and issued I-Cards at the
Kotra Block in Udaipur. There Aajeevika Bureau is running its bureau centre in collaboration
with a local NGO, Adivasi Vikas Manch. Here, the I-cards were issued on the occasion of the
formal inauguration of the Aajeevika Bureau’s Centre.

That day a meeting was held with the local people and especially with the ‘mates’ (local word
used for those persons who act as middle men between the employers and the labourers, a
sort of labour supply agent to the contractors). Adivasi Vikas Manch was apprehensive about
the reactions of the mates as they might see the operations of the organization as a
competitive threat to their position in the labour market and relation to the contractor. But
after a long interactive session with them, the message was conveyed that the Bureau is
concerned for their cause also and is a mechanism to solve their problems with an integrative
approach towards addressing labour issues at large.

Also the mates found the I-cards to be useful when they had occasions to see it being issued
to those people over there who just had got training in the training camp of the Aajeevika
Bureau.

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Now the database was fully functional. So we concentrated on its usage and maintenance. We
first of all trained five staff members of the organization and supported them in start using the
database. Then we helped in troubleshooting as and when the need arose.

So, level one use of ABMD had started functioning fully. One of the staff was trained to the
level of the architecture of the database so that he himself could troubleshoot normally faced
technical problems. He was also supported in developing a database user manual as per the
requirements.

The second task as regards the technological support to the organization consisted of
designing a website and then putting it onto the international network, i.e. internet. The need
for an identity on the internet was felt by the organization in its dynamic environment of
working where it envisions future relationships and networks with relevant organizations on a
continual basis. This would also help the organization to project the tasks undertaken and to
seek more ideas and insights from the world at large. The web address can be given to anyone
for reference purpose, thus increasing the scope of liaison with other organizations for
collaboration and funding. The website is still under construction. The web address is
www.aajeevikabureau.4t.com . Till now it has got the home page only. It supports the web-
mail facility also. This could be used for receiving and responding to mails from the visitors
of the website.

Limitations
• At present the database developed by us lacks the required level of full-fledged
automation. This gap can be filled by evaluating the future scalability and
decentralization needs.

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Appendix: Website of Aajeevika Bureau

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Appendix: Interfaces of the Aajeevika Bureau Migration Databse

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