Posted By: Judy Smith
By Jonathan AllenMon Nov 13, 8:37 AM ET
BANGALORE (Reuters) - The archbishop of Bangalore does not
think the city's legions of call center workers are going
straight to hell.
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But he, like many in conservative India, is worried that
the young men and women working the phones at night may be
engaging in unsaintly bouts of sex and drug-taking.
While Westerners may vilify India's call center workers for
stealing their jobs, conservatives at home worry the young
employees -- who mostly work overnight and earn far more than
earlier generations -- are helping themselves to an alien set
of Western values.
"Many have told me they have spiritual problems," said
Bernard Moras, the most senior Catholic in a city of more than
half a million Christians.
"Girls will come to me saying, 'I have been friends with a
boy, I have misbehaved, I feel perturbed in heart and mind',"
he delicately added.
The Indian media has helped fuel the call centers' "Sodom
and Gomorrah" reputation with stories of used condoms blocking
call center toilet drains and drug taking during night-shifts.
It suggests this behavior is the inevitable consequence of
young people working the night-shift to deal with customers in
the West, even if it's to discuss staid topics such as the
customer's mortgage repayment or why the printer won't print.
Call centers have been a powerful catalyst for a blossoming
youth culture in India by giving large numbers of young Indians
the financial means to live away from the disapproving glares
of their elders and to enjoy cafes, malls and bars that did not
exist a generation ago.
Their paypackets of up to 20,000 rupees ($450) a month are
ten times higher than the national average monthly salary.
"Call centers are now seen as red-light districts," said
anthropologist Shiv Visvanathan. "Even the name 'call center'
evokes call girls."
But despite their increasing independence, call-centre
workers say media reports of the death of Indian conservative
values in Bangalore may have been greatly exaggerated.
HEADBANGING
An almost impenetrable barricade of parked motorbikes
blocks the entrance to Purple Haze, one of the many Bangalore
bars brimming at the weekend with outsourcing and IT industry
workers.
Inside young men in grungy clothes headbang to hard rock.
Vicky, whooping along to music videos blaring overhead, is
one of an estimated 415,000 people working in call centers
outsourced to India from the West to deal with mundane issues
such as utility payments and credit card bills.
"Everything is exaggerated by the media," he said, sipping
whisky. "In India, people still have respect for Indian
values."
At 26, he is by no means the only guy in the bar who
believes it is wrong to have sex before marriage -- certainly
he says he held off until his wedding a couple of months back.
Friends Rizvan Khan, 28, and Kshama, 27, agree that though
their parents are often out of sight, they are rarely out of
mind.
"We do look up to our elders. They are the decision makers
for us," said Rizvan, wearing a loose brown leather jacket.
Rizvan and Kshama, both journalism graduates, say their
call center -- one of India's top five -- is a place of
diligent career advancement, and hedonists would not like it.
"It's not partying all the time. I mean you're too tired
after working all night," said Kshama.
They, like Vickram, believe it is their generation that has
struck the perfect balance between the genteel values of Old
India and the looser mores common in the West.
"India is about 50 years behind," said Rizvan, who admits
the tide might be turning.
"In the U.S., kids have affairs before marrying but here
it's seen as a sin. But that's changing now," he added
ruefully.
ELDERS ARE JEALOUS
Some of his peers are already further along the road to
becoming Westernized, preferring to keep their quasi-American
accents and mannerisms after their shifts have ended.
Exact numbers are hard to get, but chats with call center
workers suggest a small minority swallow illegal Ecstasy pills
and go out raving. Smoking cannabis during cigarette breaks is
fairly common among male employees.
And, naturally, not everyone believes that abstaining from
premarital sex is sacrosanct.
Still, Pradeep Narayanan, executive director at the
hangar-sized 24/7 Customer call center, is proud of the role
such companies are playing in India's liberalization, even if
he says the local press exaggerates worker antics.
He randomly tests his employees for drug use and has fired
a few who tested positive. But many are more straight-laced. A
group of workers even formed an in-house Christian gospel band.
"I think the people that complain are the older generation
that missed out on this," Narayanan said.
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