Technology for “mason baas"

Little is known about what technologies are used by or influences workers in the construction sector. It’s interesting to see informal sector workers in this industry use newfangled mobile technology to … well, make their lives easier.

Take Chandimal from Embilipitiya who dropped out of school at 15 and started work at a construction site with the help of a friend, for example. Now a mason (mason ‘baas’), he uses an app in his mobile to secure the correct angle when for example putting up a wall. “I can’t read a word of English,” he says laughing, but adds in a more serious note that he finds this app immensely empowering.

He laments that there are many more useful mobile apps in his smartphone that he cannot figure out.

The mobile industry has shown these informal sector employees in the construction sector a vast potential for improving productivity and efficiency. Industry analysts agree that thanks to digitalisation and innovative mobile technologies which have given rise to new construction procedures for them, now companies can boost productivity, simplify their project management and procedures, and increase quality and safety. All of this significant potential is ready to be unlocked. To capture all this potential will require a dedicated and determined effort by the industry, the analysts say. It is up to the industry to support these new opportunities more vigorously and alter the way it has traditionally operated. Workers at the bottom of the pyramid could gain from further job opportunities, improved working setting and additional skills training through such simple technologies, analysts say noting that for organisations boosting profits and productivity and better interaction between workers and management are amongst the prospective outcomes. At a time when more stakeholders insist on supply chain transparency, mobile technology could provide more faith for businesses and dignity for workers. Developing an economy with a workforce that is able to access, accept, and create technology for its own progress is a sensible objective, but it also needs an open, prudent evaluation of whether and how technology can allow, empower, and boost their skills set.