The project, known as LabourNet, will begin to register the 450,000 construction workers in the southern Indian city and get them in touch with employers through a call centre.

"Currently these workers are totally dependent on middlemen and have no social security and other welfare benefits. They are in perpetual debt," said J. Solomon, chief of the voluntary Movement for Alternatives and Youth Awareness.

He said LabourNet would ensure transparency and raise money for the training of low-wage workers.

Indian call centre employees earn an average of 15,000 rupees (340 dollars) a month completing work by telephone, often for multinational firms.

While their salaries are a fraction of those of their Western counterparts, they earn a fortune compared with construction workers who make about 50 rupees (1.1 dollars) a day, Solomon said.

Analysts say the tension between the booming India and the desperately poor was partly behind the upset defeat in April-May elections of the Hindu nationalist government, which campaigned on the slogan "India Shining."

The state government of Karnataka, whose capital is Bangalore, last year pledged to create a social security net for construction workers.

"Once the LabourNet is in place then the payment of social benefits can be made easy as workers can be identified and payments made to them through the accounts they hold in a bank," Solomon said.

A survey of 1,000 construction workers conducted by Solomon's group found that most were employed only 20 days in a month.

Ninety-six percent of the women workers who had eight to 10 years experience said they were still earning only between 50 and 100 rupees a day.

SPACE.WIRE