Krishnavatar Sharma

Co-founder

Krishnavatar Sharma is the co-founder of Aajeevika Bureau [1], an Indian non-profit working on livelihood, human rights and rural & agriculture from Udaipur.

Krishnavatar Sharma, also written Krishnavtar Sharma, is an Indian development practitioner who co-founded Aajeevika Bureau with Rajiv Khandelwal in 2004. The organisation, based in Udaipur, Rajasthan, provides services, legal aid and collective organisation to seasonal and circular migrant workers from rural southern Rajasthan and to workers in India's informal urban labour markets.

Sharma served as Aajeevika Bureau's Director (Programmes) for about two decades and is now its co-founder and chief mentor. His work has focused on building community institutions among migrant workers and developing leadership among informal sector workers.

Early life and education

Sharma trained as a lawyer, holding a law degree from the University of Rajasthan. His father worked as a rural doctor in the 1950s, and Sharma has described that example as shaping his own approach to service and to bringing legal help to people with no access to justice.

Career

Aajeevika Bureau was set up in 2004 in response to the growth of labour migration out of the tribal and rural districts of southern Rajasthan. It offers migrant workers photo identity registration, skills training, legal aid on wage claims and workplace injury, financial and health services, and support to workers' collectives, operating through facilitation centres at source areas in rural Rajasthan and at destination points in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Sharma led the organisation's programmes for around twenty years before moving into the role of chief mentor. He has written on migration and informal labour, including as a contributor to the World Economic Forum's agenda platform.

Recognition

In 2010 Sharma and Rajiv Khandelwal were jointly named India's Social Entrepreneur of the Year by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, for their work at Aajeevika Bureau.[2][3][4][5]

Aajeevika Bureau

Aajeevika Bureau, founded in 2004 in Udaipur, provides services and protection to seasonal migrant workers in India's informal economy — worker collectives, legal aid, skills training, occupational safety and social security access. Its motto: live and work with dignity, everywhere.

Aajeevika Bureau reports the following, on its own site:

LEAD Cell has recovered over ₹54.68 crore (USD 6.8 million) in unpaid wages for exploited workers
India Labour Line: 23,888 social security/BOCW Board registrations and 21,752 cases registered as of June 2024
8,675 India Labour Line cases resolved, recovering ₹21.09 crore in unpaid wages and compensation as of June 2024
Over 8 worker collectives nurtured, representing thousands of migrant workers across Rajasthan, UP, Bihar and Odisha