The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Women set to match men in numbers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 01, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Women set to match men in numbers

N. Ravi Kumar

Builders and developers need to look afresh at designing workplaces

WOMEN AT WORK: Employees at a call centre at the Tidel Park in Chennai. — Photo:R_Ragu

CHENNAI: Taking the pressures of the job in their stride, be it the odd working hours, speaking with a foreign accent or operating with a different name, more women are set to join the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector of the information technology industry.

The headcount of men and women in the sector, which currently translate into a 60:40 ratio, is set to move towards an even 50:50 mark, necessitating provision of more facilities and space for women at the workplace.

Therefore, the 4:1 benchmark followed by many while designing the workplace is inadequate, says N. Ranjit, chief operating officer of HCL Technologies BPO Services Limited.

He was speaking at an international conference on "Emerging trends in infrastructure for IT/ITES industries," organised here on Saturday by Infratech Infrastructure Services.

As competition intensifies in the sector, the emphasis of the BPO firms should be on adding and expanding the facilities such as the "gymnasium, canteen, break-out and rest rooms." Apart from the need to attract the best talent and meet the expectations of the workforce, a key factor that drives the BPOs to create facilities meeting global standards is the audit conducted by their international clients.

"Many international customers have their own audit team," which inspects the workplaces and suggests modifications, Mr. Ranjit said adding that the BPO division of HCL proposed to increase its workforce from the existing 7,000 to 40,000 in three years. The company's operations are located in India, Ireland and Malaysia.

He said that a leading consultancy had estimated the BPO sector to provide jobs to 12-lakh people by 2008 — at present it operates with four lakhs. This would mean creation of facilities worth Rs. 30,000 crores.

Vivek Harinarain, Secretary to the IT Department, said the companies should start looking beyond Chennai at several tier-II cities, including Madurai, Tiruchi and Coimbatore, for expanding their operations. Such a move, besides benefiting the companies in terms of cost arbitrage, would help decongest Chennai.

The upcoming IT corridor from Madhya Kailas junction to Siruseri would be created in record time. Apart from the expansion plans of leading software companies, including Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro, which together would recruit around 40,000 more people, a number of hardware manufacturers were in talks for setting up projects.

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