Students from the Reading Circle headed by the faculty coordinator, Mr. Surjeeth Rahulji, teamed up with other volunteers from the Construction Workers Federation of India (CWFI) to help register construction workers in the Seva Sindhu Portal of the Karnataka government.

The portal enables the registered workers to enroll themselves and obtain benefits such as Medical Insurance, Marriage Assistance, Accidental Insurance, Free Bus Pass, Pension after the age of 60, Scholarship for their kids, Death Assistance etc. However, due to illiteracy and lack of knowledge about using digital devices the workers find it impossible to apply to these schemes. This results in the workers having to pay middle-men who exploit the workers by charging them exorbitant amounts in return for helping them enroll.

The CWFI, to help workers get away from such exploitative practices, started the initiative where they collected hard-copies of the necessary forms filled by the workers and called for individuals to volunteer to help the organization update the details in the forms in the appropriate online portals. The CWFI members were extremely delighted to receive help from the students of SJCL and the students worked sincerely to make sure the procedures and completed smoothly while enjoying the process as a community.

More students have expressed their desire to help out in such initiatives in the future and CWFI members were grateful for our help informing that the CWFI would love to collaborate with us more in other initiatives to help the workers.