Spanco, a business process outsourcing (BPO) company, recently announced plans for expansion at its Dehradun call centre.
The company, which serves its client Idea Cellular from here, currently has 1,200 employees and plans to hire another 800 employees by the year-end, said its CEO, Pravin Kumar.
“Dehradun, with its high literacy rate, is an ideal place as far as BPO services are concerned,” he said.
With the increasing business volume and growing need for manpower, other companies also have similar expansion plans in the state.
But Kumar is certainly not happy with Dehradun’s public transportation. “I want to appeal to the government to improve the public transport system, as BPO employees work in shifts,” he said. Other BPOs have similar concerns.
Take the case of Archana Raturi, a BA student, who works in a BPO centre here. Like scores of other young girls, Raturi finds it an uphill task to reach the call centre in time owing to the poor public transportation. Though local bus and tempo services to her office in Sahastradhara IT Park are available, they are not reliable and she often reaches late.
“I’ve got a firing from my boss a number of times for reaching late,” she grumbled.
Security is another problem for Raturi and other young girls working in BPOs. There is no permanent police post near the IT park, which houses BPO companies such as Sparsh and Adi. These companies employ 2,500-3,000 people.
Unlike in the metros, BPO companies in Dehradun do not allow girls to work in night shifts. “We do not allow girls or women to do night shifts in our office,” said Lt Col (retd) Sanjay Mohan, Centre Head of Adi BPO Services Pvt Ltd.
This may be the key factor that has hampered the further growth of BPOs in the state. In Dehradun alone, four BPO companies – Spanco, Astra, Adi and Sparsh – had set up shop in the past few years, opening up new employment opportunities for boys and girls.
In most of these centres, the basic requirement for those wanting to join a BPO company is a good command of Hindi or English. Most of the agents at BPO companies that do outsourced work for BSNL, Tata, Idea and other brands are Hindi-speaking. Astra is the only company which does outsourcing work for international brands.
Recently, Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank visited some of these BPO companies and gave a patient hearing to their grievances. “We have taken note of the problems being faced by BPOs. We will do something,” said a top government official.
Most company officials said that due to the high literacy rate (71.6 per cent), BPOs are finding girls and boys very suitable for the jobs of agents, especially those having a good command of Hindi. “Dehradun is emerging as the new BPO hub of the North,” said a top Spanco official.
