BPO murder: Outsourced fear, women@risk

Sujata Dutta Sachdeva / TNN / Dec 17, 2005, 23:16 IST

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Thousands of cars are careening on the streets of Indian cities, ferrying women, some barely out of college, to and from these temples of modern India.

NEW DELHI: Last Monday, the Nasscom-McKinsey report proudly announced that the Indian ITES sector had ballooned from $4 billion in 2000 to about $17 billion in 2005. Happy figures, but the rape and murder of Pratibha Srikanth Murthy by a cab driver in Bangalore has sent shivers down spines across the nation.
The gruesome episode has conclusively highlighted the risks that young employees face across the country, and triggered loud protests about the lack of security in Bangalore.
On any given night, thousands of cars are careening on the streets of Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Chandigarh, ferrying men and women, some barely out of college, to and from these temples of modern India. Of course, the women, who comprise some 40% of all BPO employees, are at greater risk, as Pratibha��s gruesome murder showed.
Trade unions have been concerned about women doing night shifts in BPOs. As CITU president M K Pandhe wrote recently, "Despite having a large number of women workers, ITES companies haven��t paid much attention to their safety."

And safety is an issue with many women BPO employees. Neha Mehta, a Gurgaon-based BPO employee, says: "Although the office ensures the same driver picks me up every day, there have been instances when he��s drunk. Sometimes, the other three travellers were men. After the Pratibha incident, I feel unsafe."
Shruti Khanna of another Delhi-based BPO says, "Occasionally, there are three girls and only one man in the cab. This can be unnerving late in the night."
The situation is much the same in other cities. Bina Irani of Pune says, ��Every day, a different driver drops me home. Often I��m alone and I have to remain alert. In fact, once, I was very uncomfortable because the driver kept looking in the rear-view mirror.��
BANGALORE NOT YET RECOVERED: 'Hang the Rapist', 'He deserves the most severe punishment' were the cries that rent the air as employees of various call centres organised a protest to condemn the gruesome rape and murder of 24-year-old Hewlett Packard BPO employee Prathibha Srikanth Murthy on Saturday.
Waking up to a shock after reading about the incident, some call centre employees took out a protest march demanding safety for women
colleagues.
Not many BPO executives turned up for the protest, though most of them did not know about it till 2 pm on Saturday as they return home late in the night and sleep through till 1 or 2 pm. ''But it's just a beginning. Soon we will come out in thousands and protest till the rapist and murderer is hanged,�� said Santosh K J, an employee who works with Siemens BPO.
ISEVA employee Shridhar felt the police and BPOs were equally responsible for the security of employees. ''The police should be patrolling lonely stretches during night. Besides, cab drivers should be scanned by the security department of the organisation to check identity," he said. Ocwein Financial employee Nawaz Moinuddin, who is a colleague of the victim's husband Pavan, said, ''In the past seven months of my service, I have had four cab drivers. Since we do not know Kannada, we have a tough time communicating with them."
There are some who feel it is the employees themselves who have to be responsible for female colleagues. Vanguard Securities employee Pradeep Kumar, whose shift gets over at 1 am, said since it is impossible for the police to be everywhere, employees should cooperate among themselves. "There are five female colleagues with us in the night shift. We make sure the cab drops them home first. Though we get late by 20 minutes, this is the least we can do for our colleagues."
SECURITY GUARDS IN: Working the graveyard shift is second nature for the nearly 3.5 lakh BPO employees in India. In the comfort of numbers, none can ever imagine what happened to Pratibha could happen to them. ''It's best to be alert while travelling at night with strangers. Often, people sleep on the way back home. That's dangerous,�� says Vrushali Gangal, a Wipro employee from Mumbai.
BPO companies naturally insist their security is fool-proof. They say they ensure single women are not the first and last to be picked up or dropped. "We have 50 cabs ferrying 300 employees everyday. But the antecedents of vendors are verified,�� says Rajesh Magow, CEO, Technovate.
Some insist if only one woman employee has to be picked up, a security guard is sent. "We also choose only those vendors who have a proven track record in the business,�� says Deepak Malik, senior VP, Infovision, a Delhi-based BPO.
But the reality is that just as these companies handle outsourced business, they outsource much of their logistics, including transport. ''We don't have control on screening drivers because we outsource transport,�� says Sri Myneni, president, Knoah Solutions, a Hyderabad-based BPO. In February 2005, a Pune-based BPO employee had acid flung on her face because she ticked off her love-lorn cab driver. The accused, Kailash Adagale, had been professing his love to her for a long time.
Fresh attempts are again being made to rouse authorities. The Call Centre Association of India had an emergency on Saturday. ''We have decided to come out with a set of guidelines on security aspects for the industry. It will clearly state the do's and don'ts and help them make the system more stringent,�� said Sam Chopra, its President.
Companies in places like Bangalore and Pune are gearing up too. "We'll call our female employees next week and ask them to immediately inform the administration if they have the slightest suspicion about any driver or male colleague," said Pradeep Phadke, senior VP, GTL. Male employees will also be asked to help. Some are also thinking of keeping security guards in the cab.
(With inputs from Mini Joseph, Pooja Virendra Kumar and Sumaya Khan).

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