Dr. Avni Maniyar, Founder, Second Innings

A student-teacher duo of MSU Baroda launched a website catering to elderly citizens who want to work after their retirement. The website - Second Innings” (www.jobsforelderly.org) - which was conceived as a college project is now the most sought after website when it comes to working elderlies who doen’t want to pass time by simply being at home and believe that work doesn't know any age boundaries. Second Innings provides job opportunities to those elderly citizens who wants to work after getting retired.

“The objective behind launching this website was unique as it was to contribute towards developing a healthy ageing society and helping elderly citizens to involve in community related activities,” said Shivani Mehta the brain behind the website and a Masters from the Faculty of Family and Community Sciences,

The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara. Shivani said that the project of developing the website was undertaken as part of her master’s studies and it’s a first website launched for the elderly through which they can got work opportunity.

This website is designed in an extremely user friendly manner, where senior citizens can upload their profiles by themselves by with ease. Those elderly who want to work after their retirement can register themselves on it, by giving their personal and professional details .The website displays their profile and the employer can see their details, which develops a network between the employers and employees. Other than its core offering of providing jobs, other elements on the website include forums for interactions, messages, networking and other resources.

Launched in late 2007, the website has seen its registered database swell steadily to 400 senior citizens, who have uploaded their profile...clearly reflecting the desire and want to work amongst the elderly.

“This website was developed to create a network between employers and employees, since there are many elderly citizens who want to work after their retirement age. The reason may be constructive use of their time or economic need. It is to help the elderly to find a job or work, in which they can involve themselves utilizing their time in a constructive manner,” said Dr. Avani Maniar the guide for the concept.

The biggest challenge faced by the social entrepreneur in her arduous journey was to identify elderly citizens who are willing to work after retirement. “In order to develop a website for elderly citizens it was important to identify the elderly citizens interested in working even after retirement. So it was decided to prepare a questionnaire and distributed among the elderly citizens of Baroda city who were interested in working after their retirement in order to collect their personal and professional details (Biodata’s),” said Shivani.

Luckily for Shivani, her noble intentions found the right benefactors. The website was developed with the help of Larsen and Toubro Limited (L&T) and it got registered with the help of T.V.S Central.

Speaking about the achievements after the launching of the website Shivani said that after its launch Second Innings received tremendous response from the elderly who want to work after retirement and the successful placement of these people is her biggest achievement and reward.

The student-teacher duo hope to register more senior citizens across India in their bid to creating a self-dependent and happy aging Indian society. And as we near the magical retirement age in the not so far future, we can only keep our fingers crossed that their venture meets with roaring success, so that we can do more than read and sleep in our twilight years.