New Delhi: Jagdish Prasad sweated fruitlessly at Noida Labour Chowk, waiting for a contractor to hire him for the day, anxiety climbing with the noonday sun. But that kind of daily struggle is long over for Santosh Kumar Shahni. At a Reliance gas plant construction site in Jind, he finished lunch after his morning shift. He now has a labour card, a provident fund account, and steady work lined up until the construction is done.

Two months ago, Shahni too was aimless and desperate in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. Then some friends told him about Digital Labour Chowk. It’s for construction workers what LinkedIn is for white-collar professionals and Gig4You is for delivery drivers. Santosh Kumar Shahni didn’t have a smartphone, so he called the number on the site and got himself registered. Within a

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