The Hindu Business Line : JSW Steel’s BPO network peps up the rural scene

Mumbai, Aug. 14 From a village damsel to a BPO employee at Vijayanagar, Karnataka, S. Gowri’s transformation is complete. She is now a supervisor of a rural non-voice BPO unit that was networked by JSW Steel as a community development initiative.

Among the early ones to enrol, when village folk had to be counselled to send their girls learn an avocation that offered Rs 1,500 as stipend, she now sports a confident look answering queries that many like her in the arid expanse of Bellary would shy away from.

Listening and intervening at the 100-seater 24x7 operation, she is among colleagues in an air-conditioned complex where a continuous rattle of keyboards peps up the ambience.

For the promoters it is a revelation of sorts. They have now come to look upon it more as a vertical worth replicating.

Clientele list

The clientele list is impressive, apart from the Chennai-based Lason India, ICICI Bank’s vehicle loan division and JSW’s civil engineering department seek their services. Indications are that the Karnataka Government’s Watershed Department and ICICI Bank are to provide more jobs for this all-women enterprise.

Another Rs 1.6-crore 100-seater is slotted for inauguration on August 15, barely two years since the first was set up. A third of 300-seater capacity (which will employ 900 persons - 300 per shift) is on by January 2008 at a cost of Rs 2.5 crore, which unlike the previous two will be a voice service.

The Chairperson of JSW Foundation, Ms Sangita Jindal’s steely resolve to provide gainful employment for rural girls in the 25-odd villages around the plant, has taken deep roots in what began in Vidyanagar Township with 20 computers to train 40 women. The project draws support from JSW for infrastructure and employee transportation.

Skills training

The credit for keyboard skills training goes to Chennai-based Lason India, which puts the 10 and 12th standard girls, (dropouts too are absorbed) on the job. Lason later certifies them and based on their skill, it forwards specific jobs. Projects include health management systems and domestic products commercial information where handwritten documents are scanned and digitised. The Bangalore-based JSoft Solutions, which serves JSW, provides technical expertise to the BPO.

Trainees get Rs 1,500 for the first six months and then Rs 2,000 per month. For those on special projects the payment is on performance basis.

With more aspirants making a beeline for the outsourcing operation, efforts are on to establish similar BPOs at Hubli, Hospet and Raichur on a self-sustenance basis on a higher-skill platform. The employee numbers too are slated to go up to 5,000 in the days to come.

More Stories on : Rural Development | Outsourcing | Steel | Gender

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page