There are many NGO’s, Trusts and not-for-profits in Bharat that are really working hard to bring a change to the society. An eye-opener was the HSSF (Hindu Spiritual and Seva Fair) held at Exhibition grounds in the month of November 2024.
we witnessed so many organizations that are working in various districts across Telangana and are training women, youth including boys and girls in various skills. common themes that come across are Tailoring for women, Beautician courses for women, Electrical, Plumbing and Basic computer training to name a few.
The old proverb – “Give a man fish and he will ask for more next time, teach him to fish and he will live on his own“. has to change.
Teaching skills is not sufficient and is not empowerment.
You may have the question why, Only those being on the ground and having a grasp of the reality will agree. Trained and certified does not guarantee employment translating into income.
Do we need to provide employment to everyone who is trained and certified?
….The answer is yes, because that is true empowerment.
How can we achieve 100% employment?
It is true we cannot provide 100% employment of trained students into other companies, because no company will have the time or budget to take a fresher and give them an assignment.
this does not even happen in MNC’s and IT companies. freshers are always caught up in the chicken and egg paradox.
When the trustees of Janahitha Seva Trust were having a retrospective meeting after our annual beneficiary meeting in December 2023. we were happy that we had 950 women and youth as beneficiaries who had cleared various levels of SETWIN examinations but there was a few voices from past students who mentioned the job market is tough and those who get an offer are paid a meagre salary that is mostly exploitation due their desperation.
This was the Eureka moment when we decided to create a platform to employ our beneficiaries. The idea (Ankur) of Sahayak was thus planted.
Our technical minds started looking at options for this platform and came up with a mobile app platform.
Why mobile app?
We are in a digital world where we seek opinions, understand new concepts, learn to loose weight and all for just Rs. 99 or less.
Jokes apart, we live by WhatsApp as alternative to news, knowledge, are addicted to scrolling reels which are engaging and entertaining, we love the idea of 10 minute delivery for literally everything you want to buy. long live Quick Commerce. we stopped driving and just rely on rides to take us where we want.
we are in the mobile app world and cannot live without it. this made logical sense for us to launch our Sahayak mobile app platform.
Where does Sahayak fit with empowerment?
Sahayak is not “just another app”, there is a deep thought process involved behind this humble Home Services platform. It is aimed to serve the Sanatani household with all the services they might require. while keeping a very conscious Hindu in mind, we have compared the prices in the popular platform and reduced 10% across all services.
For those who provide services, we have given them multiple options to become self-sustained and earn a respectable income from this platform. we provide free training in different crafts such as home cleaning, home appliances apart from the regular Digital photography, videography, editing and computer education. our orientation program involves imparting crucial aspects of customer service, time management, communication skills, honest and upfront information sharing and owning the problem and giving a successful solution to the customers.
we do not levy exorbitant charges on the providers but take a token 1000/- as annual subscription, there is no mandatory rule to provide service when you have personal work, no black-listing, no pre-paid charges for bookings, no expensive white labelled equipment and consumables to be purchased from the company.
All this with a mere condition of providing timely and quality service to our Hindu customers.
As someone had said, “An empty stomach cannot wage a war“, we believe in the philosophy of teaching to fish and providing a pond too..!
