BANGALORE: Pratibha's murder raises personal safety issues
Many BPO companies do not have safety checks in place for employees on night shift, despite Factories (Amendment) Act stipulation.

The brutal murder of 24-year-old Pratibha Srikanth Murthy, who worked at the HP GlobalSoft call center here, has exposed the vulnerability and lack of personal safety of BPO employees who work night shifts.

Ironically, Pratibha was murdered in the same year in which the central government amended the Factories Act to enable women work night shifts in special economic zones, textiles and IT sector (especially call centers).

Additionally, the BPO industry, fearing a backlash from its customers abroad, has been beefing up security this year following instances of data theft by its employees.

The Amendment to the Factories Act, which allows women to work between 10 pm and 6 am, in IT among other sectors, clearly states that the employer should ensure the safety of women at workplace and while commuting.

“These timings shall be allowed only if the employer ensures safety of women at the workplace and while commuting,” it said.

Shiv Kumar, the taxi driver, had duped Pratibha into boarding his car. He then took her to an isolated place and murdered her after sexually assaulting her around 2am on December 13.

HP later clarified in a statement that the accused was not one of its authorized drivers. The company has since spruced up the security.

Police Blames HP

However, according to Alok Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Bangalore - South, HP had lapsed in providing adequate security to the victim. The company did not provide escort services. The DCP added that the company failed to act even after its regular driver informed it that another driver had picked up Pratibha from her home.

The boom in the IT and BPO industry in Bangalore and other cities has led to a spike in the crime rate in the last couple of years. Instances of robbery and assault on IT and BPO employees returning home late at night have been reported.

The lack of a good public transport system, albeit the fact that many work late, make IT workers to depend on their own transport, taxis or autos to ferry them across various destinations in the city. According to IT industry estimates, Bangalore has over one lakh BPO workers. A prominent English daily today reported quoting police sources that around 2000 vehicles were hired by various BPO firms to ferry its employees.

BPO and call center workers who work night shifts to cater to customers in North America and Europe were often said to be working in adverse conditions.

Earlier, responding to a report, which likened to their conditions to those in “Roman slave ships” and “19th century prisons”, NASSCOM president Kiran Karnik said, “Stress and night shifts are a part of the job. Moreover, IT workers are not prone to dangers like other night workers such as engine drivers.”

Reality Bites

However, his optimism is far from reality. When CyberMedia News spoke to some call center employees of top companies, what emerged was the shocking lack of concern for women employees working on the night shift.

An ex-employee of Accenture who spoke on condition of anonymity said that there were no proper checks in place to ensure the smooth transport of women employees.

“We are at the mercy of the cab drivers who sometimes pick us up late,” she said.

She also added that women who did not opt to work night shifts did not stand much of a chance for promotion in spite of their efficient performance.

There were even cases of drivers misbehaving with women employees. Another girl, who works with a prominent call center pointed towards instances of rash and drunken driving.

Incidentally, the Bangalore police have booked 277 cases of rash and negligent driving against cabbies on Friday night alone. Police have beefed up vigil following Pratibha's murder.

Security Measures

Meanwhile, police authorities said that BPO companies have not acknowledged some of the suggestions on safety of women working on the night shift.

Susant Mahapatra, Inspector General of Police-Economic Offences, Government of Karnataka, said, “ In fact, we had requested the BPO companies to avoid women working on the night shift.

If it is inevitable, we said that they should provide a separate lounge in the office for women, who can spend the night there and then go to their homes in the morning.”

Other suggestions made by the police include the presence of a night guard in the vehicle, remixing the groups, and ensuring that at least seven to eight people travel together in a vehicle.

Mahapatra also opined that safety measures were not mentioned in the IT Act. “We urge the industry forums like NASSCOM to give a proposal to the government to amend the IT Act to include security.”

MK Shankarlinge Gowda, IT secretary of Karnataka, said that he had advised BPO companies to get police help in verifying the backgrounds of its direct and indirect (canteen workers, drivers) employees and also hire BMTC buses to ferry employees on the night shift.

“Some companies in ITPL are already doing this. We are advising the BPO companies to make use of BMTC's Volvo buses for the night shift,” he stated.

NASSCOM chief Karnik, who expressed shock over the crime, said that measures would be taken to ensure the safety of women employees.

"We would like to create further such best practices or anything else we can do to make sure our people are safe and secure in general, " he told reporters.


HP beefs up security for employees

The company has set up a hotline and will now verify the credentials of all drivers

HP today put in place new safety measures for its staff following the gruesome murder of one of its employees by a taxi driver.

The company currently provides a monthly roster to each employee on his or her car numbers and driver's mobile numbers. “The procedure followed is for the car driver to give the employees a missed call. Only then do the employees board the car. The cars have HP stickers and the cab driver has an identity card,” informed HP in a press statement.

Now, the company has adopted some more measures such as ensuring that the first pick up and the last drop will be a male HP employee. Should there be no male HP employee in the car, there will be a security guard from the security company accompanying the woman employee.

The company has also enlisted the help of Bangalore Traffic Commissioner, MN Reddy to arrange for the background checks of all drivers and supervisors. From now on, drivers would be hired only after checking their backgrounds.

In addition, a special hotline number has been set up for replacement cabs, which will be manned by HP employees 24x7. Women employees will now only board a replacement cab once they receive a call from this hotline number.

According to HP, “Any deviation to this can be reported by an employee to an anonymous website and their identity shall be protected. Phone numbers of three senior HP managers have been provided to all employees.”


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.

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