Sishupal Sahu is a sardar (head of the tea estate workers) in Doyapore Tea Estate in Cachar district. For over 16 years, he has been working in the garden. His aim is to give his two children a bright future. He lost his wife a few years ago. The tea estate, his son and a daughter are now his world. He is nurturing the ambition of utilising his provident fund savings in a productive manner.
Like Sishupal, other fellow workers are a very happy lot in the garden after the Assam Government with the help of Assam Tea Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (ATEPFO) and the garden management unveiled a mobile app E-Nidhi on January 5 which allows them to have a real time understanding of their savings and necessary financial details. “I think this is a very useful app for us. It will help us know where we stand today, financially,” Sishupal told this reporter over phone from his estate.
“We start our daily activities in the garden at 8 am. It is like our home. We earn our living from this tea estate. The app will impart us a feeling of security, and reassurance. The most important thing in our life as tea estate workers is our provident fund amount. Once we know that this is in our control, we feel we are in control of our future and that of our children,” Sishupal said.
“Earlier, we would line up in the office of the PF clerk to know about the balance we have in our bank, whether our PF has been deposited on time, and other areas related to it. At times, it would lead to wastage of a lot of time as we all would be in a queue. Now that we have the app, we need not waste our time and his time. At home, when we relax, we can see relevant information and be satisfied. It has increased our trust in the system.”
Labour Minister, Sanjoy Kishan, in his inaugural speech appreciated Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma’s vision of making life comfortable for tea estate workers through use of technology. “This is a unique and important step,” he said while launching the app in Silchar.
Sanjiv Das, the PF clerk, is himself a beneficiary of the app. “Our workers used to communicate with us about their balance, the provision of availing adavnce against their PF deposit, etc. Now, they need not wait any further. In just few steps on their smartphones, they know where they are. On direction from the Silchar Zonal Office, we have updated our accounts fully in sync with the requirements of E-Nidhi,” Das told Asom Barta over phone.
The app was a brainchild of ATEPFO Commissioner Surajit Das. With a background in software, Das had been harbouring this dream of making life easy for the garden workers and that of his office colleagues. Backed by his years of thought process, his office has now managed to give this dream a form.
“Through this app, we will be able to help over 12 lakh workers and employees in the 1,233 tea gardens of Assam. Those whose wage/salary is less than ₹15,000 can qualify for availing benefits of provident fund. We developed this app with very minimal cost in-house. On the eve of my retirement, I am happy that I could offer something useful to our estate workers,” a beaming Das told this newsletter.
“The app will impart transparency to the entire process of provident fund. There were examples earlier when the process created some confusion between the tea garden management and their workers. Life will become much better for all stakeholders now. Our IT team deserves a lot of credit for this.”
System Manager of ATEPFO Chittaranjan Gogoi, who has developed the app, demonstrated the working of the app to Asom Barta during this reporter’s visit to his office. “We worked on it for three months based on inputs from tea gardens, our seniors, and other stakeholders. It was a challenge for us. To begin with, we have incorporated some basic but much-needed services. We plan to add more features to this app to help tea estate workers take advantage of this app,” Gogoi said.
