The move comes in reaction to the rape and murder of a 22-year-old woman working at a Wipro call centre in the Hinjewadi Infotech Park, Pune, on Thursday, allegedly by the driver of the office cab taking her to work, and his friend. “BPOs have a tendency to hire young women as employees, and therefore, they need to take all possible precautions. We are in the process of compiling a database of all such companies in the state,” said Pasricha at a press conference.

“We are telling these companies to carefully scrutinise the credentials of drivers before hiring them. In the case of the Pune victim, enquiries have revealed that the two accused were of a dubious character. I have spoken to the Superintendent of Police there, and investigations are on into how the driver was recruited,” he added.

In Mumbai, however, many call centre employees say there is no reason to panic. Says Monali Shah, a BPO employee in her twenties who works with IBM Daksh, “At our offices, we have a system wherein the company people have a list of the cell numbers of all the women working in the night shift, and they usually call them up to enquire whether they have reached home after the shift is over.”

Doreen Soans, who works in a BPO in Andheri, said any incident relating to any call centre or BPO leads to much hype. “I personally have worked with different organizations since the past one year and I have never felt unsafe during my transportation. The Pune rape is an isolated incident and the BPO industry should not be targeted,” she said. Her office has regular security and even a guard accompanying them when they leave the office after the graveyard shift. “Though it is a fact that some BPOs are more security conscious than others, overall the security measures taken by the companies are effective,” she opined.

Shirley Soans, Doreen’s elder sister, works with Tata Consultancy Services and says her organisation is extremely cautious. “The company security is provided by an ex-army personnel and security guards are always present to escort women employees during night shifts. Besides, the women employees are regularly warned against stepping in any company vehicle if there are any other men along with the driver,” she said.