Mumbai

Varsity study paints dismal picture of city’s call centres

Call centres have created a world that would have been unacceptable in Indian society earlier; a sub-culture quite alien to the country

Manoj R Nair

Posted On Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at 02:26:52 AM

Health hazards

Identity crisis
27%
Fatigue
16%
Backache
16%

India’s emergence as the world’s back office has come at a heavy social cost, says a recent Mumbai University thesis that has painted a rather dismal picture of Mumbai’s call centres.

The explosive growth of call centres has created a sub-culture quite alien to India, surmised researcher Joyce Thomas who spent four years collecting information from people working in these modern version of sweatshops.

She found a world replete with extra-marital affairs, heavy partying and drug abuse.

The cross section of workers surveyed were more likely to be involved in live-in relationships and had fewer qualms about changing sexual partners than the general public.

While their attitude to sex and marriage may not be different from liberal views held in other parts of the world, the paper says that the new work place created for the first time in the country a group of young people with ideas quite radical to conventional Indian mores.

“Oh yes, call centres have created a world that would have been unacceptable in Indian society some time ago,” said Dr Myrtle Barse, reader of sociology at Institute of Indian Culture attached to Mumbai University, and a teacher at MMK College, Bandra, who guided the researcher.

The study ‘Working in Information and Communication Technology: A Sociological Study of Call Centres in Mumbai’ identified a new kind of ‘sub-culture’ defined by the doctrines of consumerism and self-gratification. Dr Barse said she can recognise a person who subscribes to this culture.

“Call centre employees can be picked easily. They are different: they party differently and move around with people who think similarly,” said Barse.

So how are these workers different from other youngsters? Psychologist Dr Anand Desai said young call centre workers may not represent a sub-culture of their own but a sub-group within young adults. “But young adults today are significantly different from those even five years ago.

In that sense, ITES (Information Technology Enabled Services) workers may just represent an enhanced version of this group,” said Desai.

According to Barse, majority of call centre workers are undergraduates for whom the job brings a salary and lifestyle incommensurate with their qualification.

“They seem to be stuck in that particular sub-culture because their erratic hours mean they rarely mix with people of other professions,” she said.

Besides common occupational hazards like stress and odd hours, call centre workers have a rather unique source of misery: identity crisis caused by use of pseudonyms.

When Asha from Goregaon puts on a fake accent and pretends to be Patricia from Michigan, the toll of her mental health is more profound than assumed.

More than a fourth of workers surveyed – 27 per cent – said they suffered an identity crisis because of using an assumed name while talking to overseas customers.

The survey showed that 50 per cent workers had an alias. It is also a cruel world, as workers who do not imitate their peers often get ostracised.

Society apart, workers also face disapproval from families. Around 47 per cent of workers said their families did not approve of working at night.

Not everyone agreed with the findings though. Shaival Trivedi, former business head of C Bay, a Vikhroli call centre, said he found 90 to 95 per of his staff were extremely conservative.

“But that could be because most of our workers were from the central suburbs that are relatively orthodox. There are certain voice call centres in the western suburbs that would reflect the findings in the study. I endorse that but not entirely. I do not think all call centres are breeding grounds of loose morals,” said Trivedi.

Poritosh Dutta, an operations executive at a Malad call centre, said that while some of the surmises were true, the picture was not so depressing.

“Most workers join immediately after college, so they are less mature and could be dragged into such lifestyle by peer pressure. But all call centres don’t have very young people,” said Dutta.

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