Promise and Challenges in Ruralsourcing

With the Indian BPO on the rise recently, many companies have turned their attention to building up centers in Rural India.

This is a welcome development. With the cities already bursting at the seams, the last thing you need are more people migrating there from the villages in search of jobs. Rural Outsourcing has the potential to stop this by keeping trained or trainable people in smaller Tier 3 and Tier 4 towns in their new BPO centers.

It brings much needed economic relief to these people and towns and is a win-win for everyone concerned.

That's the promise. Now for the real challenges!

The reality is that Brand Names and city jobs still rule in the minds of the good hireable people from these towns. A job with brand name company in a city is still a big draw for trainable people in these smaller towns.

The other reality is the availability of these people in enough numbers. I was led to believe that in some smaller tier-4 towns you cannot build a center of more than 100 to 150 people!

Lack of English ability from the people available in these towns means that they may have to work on jobs that require only a local language. Unfortunately, these are local Indian BPO processes for say the Telecom company or a Bank. While international contracts pay around $6 to $8 an hour, these domestic processes pay only $2 or so an hour.

In addition, infrastructure is so poor in many of these smaller towns with power being non-existent in summer at least, diesel generators are needed. Diesel is needed! Now is it economical to run a 100 person BPO center providing for every infrastructure requirement and being paid a low per hour fee?

Those are the challenges. Still worth pursuing because if it happens it's a win-win for everyone!