Lekka: Building a Kannada-First Labour Ledger for Farmers

Client: Independent product
Service: Mobile App Development
Status: Closed testing

Overview

Lekka is a Kannada-first mobile application designed to help farmers and small landowners manage labour records without depending on notebooks, complicated accounting software or constant internet access.

The app brings worker profiles, daily work entries, wages, payments and settlements into one simple system. It was designed around the way labour is actually managed in rural Karnataka, where records are often maintained manually and many users are more comfortable working in Kannada.

The objective was not simply to digitise a ledger, but to create an app that felt familiar, practical and usable for people who may not regularly use business software.

Development Challenges

The biggest challenge was translating informal, real-world labour arrangements into a structured digital system.

A worker may be paid by the day, by quantity or according to a specific type of work. Payments may be made partially, accumulated over several days or settled later. The app therefore needed to maintain a clear relationship between work completed, wages earned, money already paid and the remaining balance.

Because the target users may work in areas with unreliable connectivity, the app also needed to function offline and preserve data safely on the device.

Other important considerations included Kannada-first navigation, worker photographs and identity documents, settlement history, cloud backup and ensuring that the interface remained readable on older Android phones.

Development Approach

Lekka was built using React Native with an offline-first architecture.

The application includes:

• Worker profiles with photographs and identity documents

• Daily work and attendance records

• Multiple work types, units and wage calculations

• Partial payments and transaction history

• Wage settlements and outstanding-balance tracking

• Kannada-first interface and navigation

• Local offline data storage

• Google Drive backup and restore

• Android release-build testing

• Responsive layouts for different phone sizes

Particular attention was given to payment and settlement logic so that users could understand exactly how much had been earned, paid and still remained outstanding.

Outcome

Lekka has developed into a functional labour-management application that brings together worker information, work records and financial tracking in one place.

The app is currently in closed testing, where production-specific issues and usability improvements are being refined before a broader release.

More importantly, the project demonstrates how software can be designed around local language, unreliable connectivity and the everyday working habits of its users—rather than expecting users to adapt to generic software.