Everyday at 10.20 am,Saswati Mukherjee,a 1992-batch West Bengal Employment Service officer,reaches her office at 67 Bentink Street near Esplanade, the heart of Kolkata. These days her office has become a big draw with the youth of the city. On July 26,West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee inaugurated a website,www.employmentbankwb.gov.in,for unemployed youth of the state to register on to find a job. The employment bank does not directly offer a job but brings together the unemployed and the hiring companies. Till September 10,more than 30,000 job seekers,including four PhDs,two M.Phils and one postgraduate medical practitioner,had registered on the website seeking jobs while 16 companies had registered to hire suitable candidates. Its Mukherjees job to keep the website running efficiently and to counsel people who either call or turn up at her office. So huge is the response to the project that we receive hundreds of phone calls everyday from jobseekers. Those who registered their names in the website are contacting us and we are advising them to get their names validated in their respective employment exchange offices after logging onto the website, Mukherjee says. I work on this project everyday along with our three joint directorsMurari Mohan Sinha,Subhashis Chakraborty and Pradip Sarkar. We receive several phone calls from job seekers every day. I take their calls and advise them on how to register on the website, says Mukherjee. But maintaining the website is no easy task. Apart from taking calls and meeting unemployed youth,Mukherjee has a lot more on her hands. Labour minister Purnendu Bose himself keeps a close watch on the functioning of the team and the director of employment holds discussions on the project regularly. Labour department officials posted at the Writers Buildings visit her office frequently to check the progress. I do not have much time to spare. Please ask me your questions quickly. I have a meeting with WEBEL officials, says Mukherjee. WEBEL has designed the website. Just before her meeting,Jayanta Ruidas,a 24-year-old polytechnic college student from Durgapur,calls. He does not know how to get his name validated in the employment office. Mukherjee gives him a patient hearing and answers his questions. Many people think we will provide jobs through the employment bank. When they call us for a job,we speak to them and help them get a clear idea about the concept of an employment bank, she says. Arpita Seth,a 27-year-old bioscience graduate of Jaipuria College,walks in to know how to upload a photograph on the website. Though I was made the nodal officer,it is team work, says Mukherjee.
