Indian Bodyshop, starts US Company to stop H1B visa exploitation
By Shalini Singh - TECH GOSS
Shravan Debbad grew up in Hyderabad and came to USA in 1987 to do a Masters at Oregon State University. Few years later, he started a career as a Manager in an Indian body shop in the Silicon Valley, USA. Shravan quit to join Oracle and later Nortel Networks as their internal recruiter making a healthy six figure income per year. While working at recruitment at the body shop, Shravan noticed that the H-1B visa holders were being paid only a fraction of their real earnings and denied the choice of moving jobs to a preferred employer.
California-based Shravan, along with a partner, has been working with H-1B visa holder since 2003, under a different company name. He says that he has learned from his mistakes, and will not under pay people. Now that the length of time for H-1B employees of Indian origin to get a Greencard has dramatically increased, and consequently the workers abuse increased, he has now floated NRISoft.com which he calls the “Un-sweatshop” to assist Indians on H-1b working visas get a better deal. He told techgoss:
"The exploitation of H-1B visas holders is extremely bad. The unfortunate part of the story is that it is Indians who are exploiting other Indians - both in India, as well as in America.
In The USA, it is now taking a long time now for Indians to get a Greencard. H-1B visa holders may have to wait for 6 plus years while EB2 may have to wait for 8 plus years. The biggest problem of not having a Greencard, is mobility, and therefore, getting underpaid by their body shop employer. I believe that we have a solution to their problem. That is, we offer mobility to our employees. They can work for any company out there in the US, as a consultant, and our employees get 90-92% of the billing rate minus taxes of course. That is 20% more than what even citizens and Greencard holders make at most staffing companies.
In India: we call ourselves the “Un-Sweatshop”, an alternative to working for the multi-billion dollar software Sweatshops in India. Although India might look like its making strides in the technological arena, we believe that the greatest civilization to exist on the Earth has slipped back (hopefully for very short time) into middle ages. Just like in the Industrial Ages, these software sweat shops employ thousands of Indians, putting in 14 hour days, 6 days a week. Sure they are getting thousands of rupees. This is no way to live. While the Indian workers are slogging under constant pressure of losing their job for non performance, the owners, so called visionaries are raking in billions. These visionaries are developing "the Ass" culture in India.
Lord Krishna says, in Bhagavadgita, Ch7, Verse15,
"Na Mam (not unto me) Duskrtino (miscreants) Mudhah (foolish)
Prapadyante(surrender) Naradhamah(lowest among mankind)
Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons, do not surrender unto me."
The mudhas are those who are grossly foolish, like hard-working beasts of burden. They want to enjoy the fruits of their labor by themselves, and so do not want to part with them for the Supreme. Translation from Bhagavadgita AS IT IS.
The typical example of the beast of burden is the Ass. This humble beast is made to work very hard by his master. The ass does not really know for whom it works so hard day and night. He remains satisfied by filling his stomach with a bundle of grass, sleeping for a while under fear of being beaten by his master, and satisfying his sex appetite at the risk of being repeatedly kicked by the opposite party. The ass sings poetry and philosophy sometimes, but this braying only disturbs others. This is the position of the foolish fruitless worker who does not know for whom he should work.
He does not know that Karma(action) is meant for Yajna (any action performed only to please God)
What would we do different? We will implement normal 8-9 hours per day. 4 hours on Sat. There will be no emotional blackmail, the way it goes on in these sweatshops. We will share 90 percent of our profits with the employees in India. Employees in India can expect a Diwali check to be as much as 1/2 their yearly salary! We are looking for a break in India, for a site allotment. Once this works out, we will be in business.
Why would we wanna give away the store?
At the end of the day, no matter how much money you make, you can only eat 4 chapatis.
