In a post-pandemic world, poverty is an increasingly urgent issue. In India, the number of individuals who lie below the national minimum wage threshold increased by 230 million during the pandemic. This is an unprecedented decline in India’s progress in tackling poverty. However, start-ups such as Karya, which advertises itself as “the world’s first ethical data company,” are working hard to get India back on track. Through connecting rural Indians to versatile and accessible digital employment, Karya is converting digital data to real change in tackling poverty, in India and beyond. 

What is Karya?

Taking its name from the Sanskrit “Karya,” or “कार्य,” meaning “work that gives one dignity,” Karya makes its mission abundantly clear: to create impactful solutions for economically disadvantaged communities that are sustainable, innovative and dignified. 

Karya provides Indians living in low-income communities with employment opportunities in the AI and data-creation sector, connecting rural areas to a booming global industry at an hourly wage of approximately $5, more than double the Indian daily minimum wage, all with simply a smartphone. 

Tapping into the increasing innovation and popularity of artificial intelligence (AI), Karya helps meet and connect the needs of cutting-edge companies and some of the world’s poorest individuals in an ethical and transformative fashion. 

Companies creating AIs such as ChatGPT are in need of datasets — collections of textual or vocal data — in languages without a strong digital presence. Additionally, with India boasting 25 writing systems and at least 50 native languages which make up a substantial amount of writing and publishing, it seems there is no better community primed and ready to meet the needs of tech companies across the globe. 

Text prompts are sent to Karya workers through an app. Workers then record themselves speaking in their native language and upload this to the app, for which they are immediately paid. After recordings have been quality-checked over the course of a few days, workers then receive a 50% bonus. These recordings are used to create ethical data sets which Karya sells to clients working on AI models. 

The Karya Promise

The “Karya Promise” lays out the four key principles that guide the organization in ensuring sustainable and ethical practice. Its aim to prioritize and improve the situations of those in poverty for good is made abundantly clear. 

Through maximizing worker wages and creating datasets that are owned in-principal by employees – allowing them to receive data royalties whenever datasets are resold – Karya not only provides a sustainable source of income for an output that requires little to no skill or training but also equips data collectors with the agency over this output. 

This, combined with a pay-as-you-go system, which means workers are paid immediately, not at the end of each month, provides financial stability on short- and long-term scales. 

Karya is also committed to improving the well-being of its workers. Any profit earned by the company is redirected to the Karya Foundation, which aims to provide stable and long-standing foundations to lift rural Indian communities out of poverty.

This is done through introducing measures including interactive skilling initiatives, hyper-local employment coaching and liaising with organizations across India to carve out apprenticeships and career opportunities. 

For Karya, the key to long-standing and transformative solutions to solving global poverty is collaboration. It forges systems of connection that act as far more than temporary stop-gaps and quick fixes.

The Future

This desire for permanent change speaks to the company’s mission to “create pathways out of poverty.” As Vivek Seshadri, Karya’s chief technology officer and co-founder makes clear, the end goal is not simply to employ rural communities in data work.

Instead, this initial data collection is a stepping-stone to other programs — Karya Learn and Karya Grow — initiatives designed to facilitate the professional development of workers. The programs facilitate introducing wealth to rural and low-income communities by providing the skills to set their workers on a pathway to higher productivity and higher-paid employment. 

Through a strongly principled approach rooted in minimizing poverty rather than maximizing profit, Karya is converting digital data to real change, in India and beyond. 

– Izzy Grout
Photo: Flickr