The significance of women study in BPO sectors An ex call Center employee, Prathiba Murthy, had been raped and

murdered by a taxi driver. The terrible incident happened due to the untimely hours of call center jobs. Situation like these calls for an overview and awareness of what is happening in the lives of women employees from one of Indias most thriving industries, the BPO (Business Process Outsourcing). BPOs fall under the industry of Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES). Numerous western oriented companies choose India as the outsourcing channel due to various reasons that include factor cost advantage, business risk mitigation, economy of scale, superior competency, utilization improvement. According to the Nasscom-Everest study, The Indian BPO industrys growth and increasing maturity is reflected across multiple dimensions. In just over a decade, the industry has grown to reach nearly US$ 11 billion in export revenues, employs more than 700,000 people, and accounts for more than 35 percent of the worldwide BPO market.

The role played by BPOs in boosting Indias economy shows that the IT and ITeS sector have been contributing largely to the economic growth of India. The growth in the contribution of BPOs to Gross Domestic Product has shown a steady rise from 1.2% to 5.4%. It is hence evident that the BPO industry is making an impact on the Indian economy.

Women in BPOs The number of women working in BPO sectors have increased. This could be taken as a sign of progress as well as a reason to act with more caution. The number of women working in the IT-BPO sector has grown by 60% in the last two years to 6.7 lakh in 2008. The growth of women employees raises many issues along the way. It is important to address them and work towards creating a safer work environment for women. Many of the employees turn out to be young adults most of who are starting their careers. With the pleasing rate of economic growth from BPOs, it would be inconvenient to cut off the womens jobs due to the harassment and

other issues. In stead, better security must be enabled in the work place and facilitated transportations. Some of the issues addressed are the attrition rate, the glass ceiling effect, security problems and worklife balance. According to the studies of village pay phones in Bangladesh, advancement of computer aided technologies and networking in India show that the household income has increased and women have a say and mobility in household matters. With introduction of communication technologies and new information the workload of every woman has increased. They have to do the unpaid household chores in addition to the paid work in the BPO industry. India has the largest number of women working in BPOs than any other single country in the world. This can be partly attributed to the growth of BPOs in India. It is utterly important to study the issues that women face in BPOs because of the fast growth of women employees and the need for increasing their productivity and giving them a safer work environment. An overall statistics of employment in the IT and PBO industry in India
- * number of people employed in overall IT industry in India (end 2006): 1.3 million directly -- 3 million indirectly [BBC Jan 07] - staff employed in ITES-BPO : 2002/03: 171,100 -- 2003/04: 245,100 (ITES-BPO: IT enabled Services - Business Process Outsourcing) [GTF; 2005] - staff employed in outsourced customer service: 2002/03: 65,000 -- 2003/04: 95,000 [GTF; 2005] - annual employee attrition (staff turnover) in voice based BPO (i.e. outsourced call centres): up to 70-80% in some voice BPOs [GTF; Jan 2006 - * people employed by three major Indian IT firms (Infosys, Wipro, TCS): 2006: between 52,000 and 83,000 each-- 2001: between 10,000 and 20,000 each 1996: between 1,000 and 9,000 each [BBC Jan 07] - * people employed abroad by major IT firms: Wipro: 11,000 -- TCS: 20,000 [BBC Jan 07] - annual salary hike in IT services 2003: 14% [2004] - * standard salary for call centre worker in India: around 1.2 lakh Rs (120,000Rs or 1,600 GBP) per year or 10,000 Rs per year [BBC Jan 07]