Now, BPOs put women in driver's seat

NEW DELHI: The BPO industry is planning to put women in the driving seat, literally. In an attempt to assuage security fears of female employees working late night shifts in BPOs, CII-affiliate Young Indians, along with Dr Reddy’s Livelihood Advancement Business School (LABS), is experimenting with the idea of employing women as drivers.

Young Indians (Yi), with membership of 550 young entrepreneurs, and LABS have signed an MoU to skill underprivileged women in Andhra Pradesh. The first initiative is providing driving lessons to 100 women in Hyderabad.

The BPO industry has already offered to employ these women. Drawn from the disadvantaged sections of the society, these women will take the three month-long training course after clearing a formal test. The project will start soon and if successful, will be replicated in other cities.

In a study done by the Hyderabad chapter of Yi, it was found that a BPO would need about 5,000 cab drivers for its various branches across the country. Training women drivers for the industry, the organisation felt, was a great way to deal with the security concerns of an industry with a large female employee base.

“We work by matching industry needs with training programmes. That is how we feel employability problems can be solved,” says Narayan Sethuramon, national chairman, Young Indians.

Women constitute about 60% of those employed by the BPO industry, according to Nasscom data. The industry has been plagued by security fears. In December last year, a female employee of a Bangalore-based BPO was raped and murdered by the BPO’s cab driver.