Friday, January 06, 2006
B'lore incident rings alarm bells
Although Pune is perceived as a safe city, the rape and murder of a BPO employee in Bangalore, by a taxi driver attached to a call centre there, has got the city BPOs seriously thinking of enhancing security measures, especially for their female employees. Over 20,000 people work in the 30-odd BPOs in the city. Around 50 per cent of them are women, who work at odd hours and on night shifts. Ganesh Natarajan, chairman of the outsourcing conclave of the Confederation of Indian Industry, western region, and deputy chairman and managing director of Zensar Technologies, said the Bangalore incident is an alarm signal for BPOs. "Most BPOs do reference checks of all collateral staff, including drivers, and ensure that they come from reputed contractors/agencies, apart from making sure that a female never travels unaccompanied on long distances.
