Millennium Outsourcing

If you’ve ever wondered where the nation’s outsourcing hub gets its service industry from, just take a look at the nearest village

Aya Nagar Village is just one kilometre from Gurgaon

For India, Gurgaon is synonymous with outsourcing. International companies from all over the world outsource their business here. But where does the Millennium city outsource its service industry from? The answer does not lie in the high-rises that have come up in the city. Instead, it lies in small one- or two-bedroom houses in the villages surrounding the city. The entire population of these border villages caters to the needs of the city’s high and mighty.
Take Aya Nagar, a small village located barely a kilometer from the Gurgaon border on the MG Road. Nearly 15,000 youngsters from the village work as drivers, parking attendants or in the city’s numerous malls. And it’s not just the boys. The village girls, who, earlier, used to married off at an early age, are now working as salesgirls or trolley assistants in the malls. Nobody even thinks of marrying them off soon these days, claims a local resident.

The Millennium City of Gurgaon

Gurgaon’s affluence has brought prosperity to surrounding villages like Aya Nagar, Chakkarpur, Ghitorni and Nathupura (in the city). “There are many villagers who are working as drivers for DLF residents. In fact, most of them drive to work in their own cars. It’s not that they need the money. They do these jobs to keep themselves busy. Otherwise they might turn to crime,” says Ved Pal, a former NSUI national vice-president and an Aya Nagar resident.
The villagers have built complexes with one-bedroom apartments which they rent out to people working in Gurgaon. Instead of paying Gurgaon’s exorbitant rent rates, people working in the city’s service industry get these one-bedroom apartments for as low as Rs 1,200 to Rs 2,500 per month.

Manoj earns just Rs 8,500 per month as a driver, but drives to work in his own car.

Manoj, an Aya Nagar resident in his early 30s, works as a driver in Gurgaon. He drives to work in his own Maruti Zen. “I earn Rs 8,500 per month. Half of that is spent on fuel for my car every month. But I don’t work for money. Work keeps me busy. About 10 years ago, most of our village youngsters had no work and had taken to criminal activities. With work keeping everybody busy, the crime rate in our village has also gone down,” he says.
“For us, Gurgaon is our capital city. Delhi doesn’t help us in any way. It’s only due to Gurgaon that prosperity has come to villages bordering Gurgaon. Earlier, people from our village used to either have government jobs or used to work in fields and were in the milk business. Everything has changed with the turn of Millennium. The younger generation hates to see their wives and mothers working in fields or milching cows. Villagers here aren’t worried about any recession or meltdown. The village’s economy hasn’t been affected,” adds Ved Pal.

Ved Pal, former National VP of NSUI and a village leader

It’s not just the villagers who are prospering. The influence of the Millennium City with its high-rise designer buildings is very easily visible in these villages. “People from Gurgaon’s service industry have bought land here and are building houses. They have become a part of the social fabric of these villages,” says Om Prakash, a property dealer in the village.
And with new houses being built, the village now has a cosmopolitan outlook. The marketplace all along the village’s roads is bustling with activity. There’s stiff competition between Darjeeling Kitchen, a Chinese food joint, and the local halwai. The village roads which, till a decade ago, saw only bullock carts and the occasional DTC bus, now see call centre cabs burning rubber on them every five minutes.
“More than a lakh people catering to Gurgaon’s high and mighty live in these villages. Almost all people working in factories in Udyog Vihar are residents of this village. About 20 years ago, we used to rue that we are not strategically located and that our village would suffer in terms of development. But with Gurgaon’s rapid development, the village is on a high now,” says Om Prakash.