Call of the night: The recent murder of a BPO employee raises questions about the security of girls who work night shifts

It’s 3 ’clock in the morning and Shobha Ramakrishnan, who lives in Mumbai, wakes up worrying about her daughter Aarti who works night shifts at an information technology company in Pune. Has she reached her paying guest accommodation from her workplace safely, wonders Shobha. Ria Diaz in Goa says a silent prayer for her daughter Nancy, who works at a BPO in Bangalore, each time there is a fresh incident of rape or murder of girls who stay and work away from their hometown.

Diaz and Ramakrishnan are not alone. In almost every corner of the country now, parents are anxious about the safety of their daughters who have gone to other cities to work. And incidents such as the recent murder of BPO worker Tanya Banerjee in Bangalore or that of Prathibha Srikanthmurthy, who was also a BPO employee in the same city, last year, make that anxiety even sharper.

With the boom in the IT sector, girls are venturing out like never before to seek employment at companies that may not necessarily be located in their hometown. In a study commissioned by the National Commission for Women, the Associated Chambers of Commerce estimated that 40 per cent of women employed in business process outsourcing (BPOs) outfits and call centres work in night shifts. Add to this the number of girls working in industries like the media, advertising and healthcare and you have a sizeable female population that is out working till the wee hours of the morning. Says Nancy Diaz, “I had to move out of Goa for career enhancement. But my parents supported my move.”

For most parents though, it is a catch-22 situation. Though they worry their heart out about their daughters’ safety, most of them do not want to stand in the way of their children’s career aspirations by telling them not to move out of their hometown. According to Ramakrishnan, in the 1970s and 1980s women of her generation did have the independence to go out and work, but working night shifts was unheard of. So when her daughter Aarti decided to take up a job in Bangalore three years back, she was apprehensive. “However, since we did not wish to stand in the way of her career, we supported her.”

Agrees Bhaswati Sarkar who always knew that her children would move out of the sleepy town of Bokaro one day. When her daughter chose to do her MBA from Bangalore and subsequently took up a job in the same city, she did not even think of protesting.

But though they support their children’s decision, the worry doesn’t go away. Archan De, professor of physics at Vidyasagar University in Calcutta, whose daughter works at Tata Consultancy Services in Bangalore, feels that safety is topmost on the list of concerns of any parent whose child works or studies in another city. But for parents of girls, questions like what kind of friends they are making, whether or not they are getting into alcohol or drugs, also cause anxiety.

Agrees Shanti Tiwari, a resident of Calcutta, whose daughter Bandana works for a television company in Mumbai, “When my daughter decided to join a production house in Mumbai, I made her promise that she would always remember her disciplined upbringing.” This meant that Bandana had to be off non-vegetarian food, abstain from smoking and drinking and be very careful of the male friends that she might make.

“It is true that there are dangers in staying alone and working in another city but it all depends on the individual,” says Sandhya Basu Mallick, a housewife in north Calcutta whose daughter has just returned from the United States to work in Bangalore. “Girls definitely need to be cautious while staying alone away from their homes,” she affirms. But she also feels that parents ought not to be overprotective about their children in an effort to allay their own fears. According to her, if an individual does not misuse his or her liberty, he or she will not run the risk of getting embroiled in trouble. Agrees Tiwari, “What happened to Tanya can happen to anybody anywhere. I am confident that my daughter is capable of taking care of herself.”

Even those who are not as confident as Tiwari have to tread carefully when it comes to expressing their concern about their daughter’s safety. They realise that asking too many questions and being overprotective about their grown-up, independent, daughters can put their backs up. As Diaz says, “I speak to my daughter encouragingly over the phone about her career. Though I am always scared about her work timings and safety, I never show my fear.”

Many parents have devised their own ways of alleviating their anxiety. Lily Das, a housewife in Calcutta, spends two months in Bangalore every year with her daughter Priyanka who is studying biotechnology at a private engineering college there. “I have been travelling regularly to Bangalore for the past three years,” reveals Das. “When exams are knocking on the door, I like to stay with her to make sure that she does not get distracted.” Ramakrishnan too visits her daughter frequently. According to these parents, regular visits can help to check out the locality, friends and, at times, the office as well. Otherwise, there is always the phone and most parents rely on it to be in constant touch with their daughters.