Bangalore Sweatbox

This is so unbelievable on so many levels that I just don't know what to say.

The Independent (U.K.), 22 October 2006

India's call centres: 'Dens of debauchery and vice'

The Catholic Church has waded into the controversy over reports of rampant promiscuity in India's 24-hour call centres

By Justin Huggler in Delhi


India's booming call-centre industry has been getting a bad press, what with the arrest of a bank employee who stole hundreds of thousands of pounds from UK customers' accounts, and documentaries exposing security shortcomings. But the Catholic Church has found something else that it's much more worried about: sex.

Stories have been emerging for some time of promiscuity in the 24-hour centres. There was the call centre where the drains were choked with condoms. And the woman worker who told the press that she and her colleagues went to work with condoms in their bags.

Hardly a cause for concern by Western standards. But in India, where attitudes to sex remain highly conservative, it has caused a minor scandal. Which is where the Catholic Church has come in, offering counselling and week-long retreats for call-centre workers "in the hope of turning staff away from a life of sin".

"We don't want to do moral policing," the Archbishop of Bangalore, Bernard Moras, said. "But we want to advise young people that being 'modern' doesn't mean losing family traditions or moral values."

The reason call centres have become the scene of sexual liaisons is simple, according to those who work in them. It's one of the few places young men and women find themselves working together late at night. This is a country where most people still have a husband or wife chosen by their parents in arranged marriages. But battle lines are being drawn between those traditional values and a younger generation that views the world differently.

There is a sexual revolution going on in India. The young, at least those from the middle classes, date in a way their parents could never have dreamt of. In the big cities, more and more nightclubs and bars are opening up where men and women can socialise freely.

In Delhi this year, plastic surgeons say they have seen a 40 per cent rise in demand for cosmetic surgery in the months leading up to this weekend's Diwali festival - with men as well as women seeking nose jobs.

But there has been a moral backlash from conservatives, of which the Catholic Church's foray into call centres is a typical example. In Bombay and Bangalore, local governments have ordered police to start enforcing licensing hours.

Bombay's dance bars, where clients could ogle the dancing girls, have been victims of the moral fervour, closed down by the state government.

In part, the politicians are pandering to the vote from the millions of poor who still cannot lead the more sexually freewheeling lifestyle of the middle classes, and look on it with resentment.

A survey of call-centre workers last year found that 38 per cent believed premarital sex was morally acceptable and a quarter regularly had casual sex. The church can hold its retreats, but it seems that the sexual revolution has got hold of India.

 

A political faction initiated a planned general strike (or "bandh") today in Bangalore to draw attention to an obscure state border issue. here is a news story. According to blogs, little actually happened, but everyone took the day off.

Times of India, 4 Oct 06

India's IT hub hit by bandh


BANGALORE: A statewide 12-hour bandh called by pro-Kannada outfits Wednesday on the Maharashtra-Karnataka boundary issue affected normal life in the country's very own Silicon Valley. Large parts of Karnataka were also affected by it.

The bandh, which began at 6 AM, has been called by Karnataka Border Agitation Committee, an umbrella body of Kannada outfits. In Bangalore, most of the shops and commercial establishments remained closed.

The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) ran skeletal services in the morning. However, officials said that the continuation of the transport services would depend on the situation.

Activities in the film industry have also come to a halt.

The bandh has been called to press for the implementation of Mahajan Commission report on Maharashtra-Karnataka boundary row and to protest what the organisers called "step-motherly" treatment of the state by the Centre.

Most IT companies in the country's technology hub also remained closed due to disruption of transport service. However, employees have been asked to work on Saturday.

Government employees have been asked by their associations to go on leave to express their support for the bandh. Cable operators have also blacked out non-Kannada channels.

Nearly 60,000 police personnel and home guards have been deployed across the state with forces also drawn from neighbouring Tamil Nadu. In Bangalore, police have deployed City Armed Reserve and Rapid Action Force.

Meanwhile, a report from border town Hosur in Tamil Nadu said inter-state road traffic was badly hit. Hundreds of vehicles, including buses, have piled up on the national highway near the border.

Ruling coalition partners in Karnataka, BJP and JD(S), have also extended support to the bandh.

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, had, however, appealed to the bandh organisers to call it off. He said that the state had already conveyed a message to the Centre and Maharashtra at the special session of the legislature held last week in Belgaum. His appeal was turned down by the bandh organisers.

At the session, held for the first time outside Bangalore and significantly in Belgaum which borders Maharashtra, Karnataka had asked the Centre to implement the Mahajan Commission report in toto.

The Mahajan Commission report, submitted in 1967, had declared that Belgaum, on which Maharashtra stakes its claim, was an integral part of Karnataka and had recommended transfer of a certain number of Marathi speaking areas in the state to Maharashtra and Kannada speaking areas in the neighbouring state to Karnataka.