Bangalore: If women employees of BPO (business process outsourcing) units cannot be safe, Bangalore cannot be safe for women, president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) Kiran Karnik said here on Tuesday.

"It is not just an information technology sector issue," he told presspersons. "Even before the murder of a call centre employee here, the IT (information technology) enabled services sector was sharing information to evolve best practices in regard to employees — their health, food habits, money management and transportation. It is time some of these are immediately adopted by all firms,'' Mr. Karnik said.

As in Delhi, cabs with women drivers could be one measure that can be followed here while other suggestions, such as global positioning system to track cabs, may take time and money to implement, he said.

Mr. Karnik said there is a system in place for the safety of call centre staff but there may also be people who outsmart the system. "It is not only women call centre employees who work and travel late. The safety issue should be looked at from a broader perspective,'' Mr. Karnik said.

He was against the murder being used as an agenda by some people who argue against women working on the night shift, and felt it should be the right of women to choose whether to work at night or not.

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