BSE-listed FMCG firm ITC's e-Choupal initiative and job portal Monster India have launched a portal called RozgarDuniya.com to specifically cater to rural job seekers in India. Rozgar Duniya's starting page is in Hindi but the page can be viewed in English too. It has job categories such as textiles and weaving, teaching, mechanic and auto repair, data entry and industrial jobs such as motor binding, steel fabrication, glass blowing, khallasi and administration jobs. The domain Rozgar Duniya was registered in February 2009. It sports a dormant look and a limited database. Mint reports that it will take 3 weeks for the website to put up 150 job listings. Reaching Out The two companies are initially targeting four states - Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan but will scale it up to nine states and about 40,000 villages using e-Choupal network. e-Choupals are Internet kiosks in villages that offer farmers crop, weather and market information. ITC has set up 6,5oo such e-Choupals so far in 10 states and claims to reach a whopping 4 million farmers. It plans to extend this network to 15 states and 20,000 e-Choupals in the next five years. ITC will be training its e-Choupal Sanchalaks, farmers who were trained to operate the kiosks, to help others in their community use the website and apply for jobs. This is a vital step to bridge the crevasse between rural job seekers and the Internet. SREI Sahaj, which has the mandate of setting up 27,000 CSCs (kiosks) across…
