The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Pune incident causes concern in city

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Monday, Nov 05, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Pune incident causes concern in city

Swathi.V

Questions about safety of woman BPO employees resurface

FILE PHOTO

DISTURBING FACTOR: A call centre taxi on its rounds in the city.

HYDERABAD: After two years of quietude, questions about the safety of woman employees in Business Process Outsourcing enterprises have resurfaced. The city has suddenly woken up to the tidings of the brutal murder of a young woman after a sexual assault on Friday at Pune.

After a similar incident in Bangalore in 2005, police enquiries later exposed serious security lapses with regard to the appointment of taxi drivers. The latest incident has raised doubts whether the security system is as full-proof as it is required to be.

Feedback mixed

“I used to feel safe about my daughter working in night shifts since she was not the only girl to do so. Not anymore,” says Rama Devi, the mother of a young woman working with the BPO of a multinational bank.

However, feedback from night shift employees of BPO concerns is mixed. Much has been done though there is scope for improvement, they say. “If the cab does not have any male employee, or if the last to be dropped is a woman, a security guard will certainly accompany the cab,” says Kasturi from Genpact explaining the procedure followed by her company.

Security guard is a must even when a woman is the sole traveller. Many companies have now installed the log book system to monitor the timings of the cabs. However, criminal manipulation of procedures cannot be ruled out even where the measures are in place. The system of security guards accompanying cabs might be a solution but it is not fully implemented.

Not ‘pucca’ yet

Sudha from a BPO engaged in health-related services says that her cab is never accompanied by any security guard though the principle of ‘no first pickup or last drop’ is followed. “I worked at Delhi and Mumbai where cabs for night duty employees would always be accompanied by security guards but Hyderabad is yet to imbibe that culture,” she says, chillingly.

The gender of security guard works up a threat perception too. Many guards are from private agencies, lacking in qualities mandatory for their employment. Past records are rarely verified during their appointment. The solution may be in employing woman security guards as is reportedly done by Nipuna BPO Services.

Aasha, a BPO staffer, feels that there should also be centralised monitoring of each cab en route. The shift in-charges should ensure the safety of employees by calling each of them personally and verifying whether they have reached home.

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