If we talk about rural jobs in India, the first image that comes to mind is Food-for-Work programmes and people digging holes by day and filling them up by night so that there is something to do the next day. Food-for-Work is, of course, a scandal with 85 per cent of the allocation not reaching its destination. That?s another story.

The real story today is that jobs are fast multiplying in the rural sector. While agriculture remains the backbone of the country and farm labour the clich?d sons of the soil buried under tons of toil, other opportunities are coming up.

According to human resources company Ma Foi, it currently places people in around 500 locations. It expects to up that to 1,000 soon.

Others say that distant villages that needed to be visited by one marketing executive every six months now require more attention. ?We haven?t got to the stage where we are posting people there,? says the marketing head of a FMCG major. ?Perhaps we never will. But there is a crying need for an executive to be stationed close to villages.?

These companies don?t like talking about it because there will be immediate and damaging talk about the creation of second-class citizens within the company. But on the ground, people are being appointed. They are not on the company?s rolls, and obviously get paid much less.

In a sense, they always existed. There were agents in charge of districts. But they were normally not restricted to one company. Today, people are being appointed to handle only one company?s products.

The other difference is that the penetration is much deeper. Take Hindustan Lever. Here?s how the company describes its Project Shakti: ?Over two-thirds of India?s 6,00,000 villages are small and remote. The large population in these villages presents a significant opportunity. Project Shakti is our initiative that creates a win-win partnership for consumers, rural women and Hindustan Lever. Project Shakti provides micro-enterprise opportunities for women, called shaktiammas, from self-help groups, making them direct-to-home distributors of Hindustan Lever.? The programme is already operational in 11 states and plans to reach 1,00,000 villages.

THE IT SECTOR AGENDA

Prescription to increase the IT industry's rural quotient

• Establish an apprenticeship programme for 12 months that pays trainees a stipend. Mentor them to learn English and on the ways of the world. Provide on-the-job training as shadow programmers, post-training • Choose candidates from underprivileged rural backgrounds • Use alternative methods for selection. Look for desire to succeed, and a hunger to advance.

Source: ‘Harsh Singh Lohit, MD, TechSpan India’

ITC has flagged off its e-choupals, an IT-based corporate initiative in rural India. According to the company: ?With a judicious blend of click and mortar capabilities, village internet kiosks managed by farmers (called sanchalaks) give the agricultural community information in their local language on the weather and market prices, scientific farm practices and risk management, facilitate the sale of farm inputs and purchase farm produce from the farmers? doorsteps.?

Several other companies are following the same route. In many sectors, the urban markets are saturated. Take insurance or financial services. ?Smaller towns and large villages are our target areas,? says the CEO of a new insurance company. ?Don?t think they don?t have money. And they have the same security needs as city-dwellers.?

Then there is business process outsourcing (BPO). There is a school of thought which says that to keep costs low, you have to move to smaller and smaller cities still. The one hitch: telecom infrastructure outside the major centres is still woeful. But that could improve.

?Agriculture will continue to play a role in providing employment,? says Pukhrem Sharat Chandra Singh in a paper on ?Non-farm Employment Opportunities in Rural Areas in India?. ?(But) it is necessary that the rural economy gets expanded and diversified into non-farm activities.? If BPO won?t deliver the goods, the shaktiammas and the sanchalaks might.