Women workers at Delhi Commission for Women’s 181 helpline for women in distress have been on a month-long sit-in after the call centre operations were handed to a private firm.
The helpline was launched by then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in December 2012, after the gangrape of a paramedical student on a moving bus in the national capital.
“On March 22, we received a message on WhatsApp that we have to report at a different location for work the following day. It was earlier hinted that our office was being relocated, but when we went to the new office we were told that they will offer us a job only after we resign from DCW,” said one of the workers.
However, DCW says they had been trying to improve the efficiency of the helpline for the past several years. “In 2016, we realised that 70-80% calls were logged calls that dropped, while many also went unattended.... Then we installed CCTV cameras and noticed that workers were deliberately disconnecting calls and were sometimes sleeping on mattresses and quilts they brought from their homes,” said Gautam Singh, a senior co-ordinator at DCW.
“Our call drop rate has dropped to 1% after we hired the private firm,” he said.
