Invites Expression of Interest

Community Welfare Wing, Embassy of India, Abu Dhabi invites expression of Interest to establish and manage a Resource Center for the Indian Workers in the UAE. The Resource Center will be a facilitating Center to handle Indian workers and provide the following services.

• a 24x7 HELP LINE
• Receive, register and monitor the grievance petitions
• Conduct awareness classes and counseling sessions to the Indian community and Indian workers on legal, financial and medical counselling.
• Process attestation of employment documents relating to Indian workers.

The centre will be located in Dubai and serve all the Indians in the UAE. The applicant Institutions should be an existing service provider with sufficient experience and trained staff. A minimum experience of five years in providing similar service to any expatriate labor or any Government Organisation is required.

Offers should consist of a brief write-up on how the centers will be modeled along with evidence of experience and expertise. All offers should be superscribed as offer to establish and manage IWRC and addressed to Counsellor, (Community Affairs), Embassy of India, PO Box No. 4090, Abu Dhabi, UAE on or before 16th May 2010. For any clarifications, queries may be sent to help@indembassyuae.org. Further details about the center will be available at www.indembassyuae.org/IWRC

Applicants may be required to make a presentation on their proposal. Only those found eligible will be short listed and issued the Request for Proposal (RFP). All proposals presented shall be confidential and will remain with Embassy of India. Embassy of India reserves its rights to reject any offer without assigning reasons.

Counsellor (CA)

IWRC - Dubai will be an outsourced facility to handle issues pertaining to the Indian workers in the UAE. The primary objective of this facility is to assist the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi and/ or Indian Consulate in Dubai. This center will not replace the services provided in the Embassy or the Consulate. The service provider shall have domain expertise in carrying out the following responsibilities:

• Source and operating a 24 X 7 help line for providing information and/or registering and forwarding the complaints received from the Indian nationals.
• Assist the Embassy / Consulate in redressing the grievances through awareness campaigns and counselling services.
• Processing the applications for attestation of Work Contracts
• Operating a shelter for food and accommodation
• Assist the Embassy / Consulate in providing legal, financial and medical assistance to the Indian workers in distress.

Geographical Coverage and working hours:

The center will be responsible for handling issues arising out of all the seven emirates in the UAE. The center will work on a 24X &7 basis, except in the forenoon of Fridays. The help line

The Project will be started with two lines which may be subsequently increased to four, depending upon the requirement after the half-yearly/annual Evaluation

Language:
The languages proposed to be covered are English, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu. This may be extended to other Indian Languages, depending upon lingua franca of the complaints received.

Subject Coverage:
The areas covered by the IWRC should be related to all issues concerning Overseas Employment and Immigration of migrant workers

Capacity:
The initial requirement will be for a 2+1 call centre to provide for two Counselors and one Supervisor, which may be increased subsequently. An IVR will be the first level of filtration and the callers can leave a voice mail which will need to be captured in the voice mail box. In case of emergency only the caller will get to speak with a live Counselor. The caller should at a later date have the ability to log in the docket number and check the status of his query. In case the matter has been resolved, the caller will have an option to hear the redressal. The same will also be communicated to him through e-mail or fax.

Coordination and FAQ:
The IWRC will work under the supervision of the Indian Embassy and involve Counselors posted in the Mission who are familiar with the subject to identify the most frequently occurring queries, mapping the relevant knowledge domain and preparation of standard operating procedures of the call centre.

The success of the IWRC will depend upon how fast and how correct the Help Desk and Helpline can identify the most frequently occurring queries, mapping the relevant knowledge domain and preparation of standard operating procedures of the IWRC.

Processing of Queries:
The host institution will set up a central processing unit which will funnel in all the queries. Each of the queries will be given a unique number. The query will be transcribed into precise form. Depending on the nature of the query/complaint/suggestion the same will be either responded to or forwarded to the appropriate person within the Mission/Overseas Indian Centre. A nodal point will be created within the Mission/Overseas Indian Centre who will help the Centre to coordinate and close cases.

All the queries will be given a TAT and the replies will be made by either e-mail/letters or telephonic calls. This cell will start creating a bank of queries and answers on an ongoing basis.

Personnel:
The key to success of such a Centre is the availability of qualified and skilled personnel who are specialized in the subject matter. To ensure that each call is answered properly, it is necessary to have each set manned by personnel during the working hours. This requires core-full time staff. Apart from full time staff, it is proposed to engage part-time counselors who are specialized in their respective fields. The staff engaged shall be suitably qualified, trained and linguistically skilled. The setup also requires some administrative and support staff. The Mission jointly with the hosting agency will create a training platform for all the Counselors working on this project.

Advertising and Publicity:
Publicity and advertising of the IWRC will be by the Mission and the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs. The host institution will be made aware of the campaigns.

Reports:
The host institution has to give a monthly report with analysis and findings in the proforma decided between the Ministry and the host institution.

Monitoring:
While the administrative and financial management of the Centre would be the responsibility of the host institution, the overall monitoring of the Centre would be with the Mission as the Centre will work on the financial assistance given by the Mission.

Evaluation:
Half yearly evaluation should be done by the Ministry and for annual evaluation, the task should be given to an independent agency. The finding of annual evaluation will help in further continuation of the Helpline as well as its improvement.