November 3 2007: Jyothikumari, a Wipro BPO employee in Pune was raped and murdered by her driver.
December 13 2005: Pratibha Srikantamurthy, a HP Globalsoft employee in Bangalore, was raped and murdered by a person who posed as the cab driver
August 6 2005: A cab driver threw acid on the face of a 22-year old girl working in a Pune BPO when she resisted the advances made by him.
With headlines like these bursting out of our morning newspapers, is it any surprise that parental hearts skip a beat when their daughters board the cab to work on a US or UK shift at the BPO company?
Safe transportation has been the focus of attention every time one discusses a call center or any other ITES job for a member of the family. In fact, call center vehicles have been in the news for all the wrong reasons for quite some time now. From sexual harassment to employees, to rash driving, over-speeding and fatal accidents, these pick-up and drop vehicles have wrought havoc with our nerves in more ways than one dares to think of.
Following the murder of Pratibha, all companies tightened their security policies. Company rules specify that women must only travel in the presence of another male employee. A separate transport department, internal hotlines and SMS services were introduced to monitor commuting employees. Still, there has been no visible drop in the number of BPO cab drivers involved in crimes, ranging from theft and extortion, to rash driving and harassment.
So, is a blanket ban on night work for women the answer to the issues relating to their safety? The growing presence of women in sectors where night shifts are essential doesn’t justify a ban. According to a NASSCOM survey, women constitute 38 per cent of the IT/BPO industry, the largest ratio in any country.
Karnataka has an archaic law that prohibits employment of women in offices that work through the nights – between 2000 hours and 0600 hours to be precise. The state government had to amend this Act under pressure from the industry. It had to exempt various sectors like IT and biotechnology, the media, essential services such as hospitals, railways and airports. So the Act does not cover all women working at night, but only some, including those working in the hospitality and entertainment sectors and in retail.
In fact, moves to ban night shifts for women has met with resistance from women’s organizations who apprehend that such a measure will not only reduce job opportunities but also block their chances of career advancement. So, ways other than a ban have to be found to tackle the question of working women’s safety.
If the Government feels that the security of women is at stake, then they should insist that provisions are made by companies to ensure safety, such as pick ups and drop backs with adequate security.
The fast growing BPO industry has generated parallel employment for cab drivers. The BPOs in Pune have collective staff strength of about 50,000-plus and a fleet of over 6,000 cars. The number is many times more in Bangalore, the world’s largest BPO hub employing about 2.5lakh people, half of who are women. A large number of BPOs have clearly failed to pay enough attention to the quality or background of these drivers.
Checking the antecedents of drivers should be made mandatory for companies operating through fleet operators. "Background check and ref-check of the BPO drivers is the weakest link in the entire BPO operation. All our unsafe transportation issues are arising from here," said a BPO executive.
Some amount of security consciousness is also necessary on the part of young employees in BPOs. Many young BPO employees are guilty of not behaving professionally with drivers. They are found to be not being punctual and forcing drivers to speed, becoming over-friendly with them, requesting drivers to drop them at unscheduled spots and getting into quarrels with them. Some BPOs face résistance from their male employees who do not feel chivalrous enough to allow the lady to be dropped off first.
The other option is for government to operate transport services to ferry the employees during late night hours. It is for want of public transport that employees are forced to rely on private cab operators. Such a problem doesn’t exist in a city like Mumbai which is well-connected by suburban train services and buses.
Whenever there are cases such as rape and murder of an employee, acid attack or assault by drivers, they create headlines temporarily. However, things are forgotten until the next incident grabs the headlines. The recent Supreme Court order giving the go-ahead to prosecute NASSCOM Chief Som Mittal, the former managing director of HP Global Soft in the Pratibha case has come as a timely reminder to employers that they can no longer take the safety and security of women employees for granted.
December 13 2005: Pratibha Srikantamurthy, a HP Globalsoft employee in Bangalore, was raped and murdered by a person who posed as the cab driver
August 6 2005: A cab driver threw acid on the face of a 22-year old girl working in a Pune BPO when she resisted the advances made by him.
With headlines like these bursting out of our morning newspapers, is it any surprise that parental hearts skip a beat when their daughters board the cab to work on a US or UK shift at the BPO company?
Safe transportation has been the focus of attention every time one discusses a call center or any other ITES job for a member of the family. In fact, call center vehicles have been in the news for all the wrong reasons for quite some time now. From sexual harassment to employees, to rash driving, over-speeding and fatal accidents, these pick-up and drop vehicles have wrought havoc with our nerves in more ways than one dares to think of.
Following the murder of Pratibha, all companies tightened their security policies. Company rules specify that women must only travel in the presence of another male employee. A separate transport department, internal hotlines and SMS services were introduced to monitor commuting employees. Still, there has been no visible drop in the number of BPO cab drivers involved in crimes, ranging from theft and extortion, to rash driving and harassment.
So, is a blanket ban on night work for women the answer to the issues relating to their safety? The growing presence of women in sectors where night shifts are essential doesn’t justify a ban. According to a NASSCOM survey, women constitute 38 per cent of the IT/BPO industry, the largest ratio in any country.
Karnataka has an archaic law that prohibits employment of women in offices that work through the nights – between 2000 hours and 0600 hours to be precise. The state government had to amend this Act under pressure from the industry. It had to exempt various sectors like IT and biotechnology, the media, essential services such as hospitals, railways and airports. So the Act does not cover all women working at night, but only some, including those working in the hospitality and entertainment sectors and in retail.
In fact, moves to ban night shifts for women has met with resistance from women’s organizations who apprehend that such a measure will not only reduce job opportunities but also block their chances of career advancement. So, ways other than a ban have to be found to tackle the question of working women’s safety.
If the Government feels that the security of women is at stake, then they should insist that provisions are made by companies to ensure safety, such as pick ups and drop backs with adequate security.
The fast growing BPO industry has generated parallel employment for cab drivers. The BPOs in Pune have collective staff strength of about 50,000-plus and a fleet of over 6,000 cars. The number is many times more in Bangalore, the world’s largest BPO hub employing about 2.5lakh people, half of who are women. A large number of BPOs have clearly failed to pay enough attention to the quality or background of these drivers.
Checking the antecedents of drivers should be made mandatory for companies operating through fleet operators. "Background check and ref-check of the BPO drivers is the weakest link in the entire BPO operation. All our unsafe transportation issues are arising from here," said a BPO executive.
Some amount of security consciousness is also necessary on the part of young employees in BPOs. Many young BPO employees are guilty of not behaving professionally with drivers. They are found to be not being punctual and forcing drivers to speed, becoming over-friendly with them, requesting drivers to drop them at unscheduled spots and getting into quarrels with them. Some BPOs face résistance from their male employees who do not feel chivalrous enough to allow the lady to be dropped off first.
The other option is for government to operate transport services to ferry the employees during late night hours. It is for want of public transport that employees are forced to rely on private cab operators. Such a problem doesn’t exist in a city like Mumbai which is well-connected by suburban train services and buses.
Whenever there are cases such as rape and murder of an employee, acid attack or assault by drivers, they create headlines temporarily. However, things are forgotten until the next incident grabs the headlines. The recent Supreme Court order giving the go-ahead to prosecute NASSCOM Chief Som Mittal, the former managing director of HP Global Soft in the Pratibha case has come as a timely reminder to employers that they can no longer take the safety and security of women employees for granted.