Social ramifications of the call-center industry

[quote:213c32f47a]Renounce the forbidden BPO fruit!
REUTERS[ TUESDAY, JUNE 08, 2004 11:23:54 AM ]

MUMBAI: Cranky US talk-show hosts, John Kerry and powerful British union leaders have all had their say. Now it's the turn of a Catholic priest in Mumbai.

Outsourcing has a new critic.

From a church pulpit in a middle-class suburb, one sultry Sunday morning, Father K T Emmanuel pelt out the biggest danger facing the city's young men and women - call centres.

In the congregation were scores of 20-somethings, who spend their nights fielding calls from the customers of multinational giants such as General Electric and Time Warner.

"The lure of money is making youngsters drop out of college to take up call centre jobs," said Emmanuel in his sermon. "They blow money on the latest cars and cell phones, while their middle-class parents struggle to save money," he added, as several parents nodded vigorously in agreement.

At a Mumbai call centre at about 1 am, 21-year-old Reema darts out of work during a break to share a smoke with her male colleagues, looking forward to a late night out at a disco - all shocking behaviour for some conservative Indian family. "My family life, social life, health... Everything is screwed up because I work nights," she said. "But the money is so good that I'm willing to compromise."

These "customer relations executives" (CREs) are part of an outsourcing industry expected to employ more than one million people and account for $25 billion in exports by 2008.

They may well force a tradition-bound country to rethink its age-old social mores.

"In this age of globalisation, where young women step out of homes to work at night, the attitude of Indian society will have to change," said sociologist Myrtle Barse. "Otherwise, it will lead to plenty of conflict between the generations."

Call centre bosses insist their offices are hardly hotbeds of revolution. "Software and back-office centres have brought in a world-class approach to work in India," said Raju Bhatnagar, chief operating officer of ICICI OneSource, part of financial services giant ICICI Group.

But for students barely out of their teens, the money is great, so many wonder why they should "waste time" getting a university degree.

"No other job in India offers this kind of money to graduates and undergraduates fresh out of college," said Harmeet Singh, a 23-year-old car-owner, whose father has never owned a vehicle.

Middle-class Indians have traditionally scrimped and saved for decades to send their children to the best universities, but 19-year-old Karen Fernandes managed to convince her parents it was a good idea to drop out of university after a year.

"She (Karen) is earning a good amount and taking care of all her expenses, so I won't insist on her going back to college," said Wanda Fernandes, her mother.

Father Emmanuel, in the suburban church, takes a longer-term view, however.

"A good college education is vital in the long run for career growth," he told his congregation.

"What if the call centre bubble bursts one day?"