Who is Driving You Home Today?

The recent rape and murder of a 22-year old Wipro call centre employee in Pune has raised a serious question about the safety of BPO employees in the country. The incident has raised a million dollar question on the safety of women working in night shifts in call centres across India. In a bid to find a few answers to this menace, TIMES NOW in its special series — ‘Who’s driving you home today?’ — brings you shocking confessions by a call centre driver, who on the condition of anonomity, tells us  about what the drivers — who drive call centre employees to work and back late at night — could be thinking.

The call centre employees, who rely on the cab drivers to ferry them to work and back everyday safely, are now a bit apprehensive about the drivers. The moot question,  however, remains is how much can these call centre cab drivers actually be trusted.

When TIMES NOW’s reporter spoke to one of the drivers working in a call centre, some suprising facts were revealed.

Reporter: What are your work timings?

Driver: There is no time limit. It depends on the work. It can be 12 hours, 16 hrs, 24 hrs. There’s no fixed limit.

Reporter: Have you ever witnessed any case of drunken driving? What about you?

Driver: I have not done that but yes there have been cases of drunken driving. I know people who drink and drive. It’s normal and it’s no secret here.

Shockingly, its true — a taxi driver admitting candidly that his peers drink and drive, and ironically, some even go to the extent of taking liberties with young women call centre employees.

Reporter: And have you seen cases of eve teasing?

Driver: Yes, drivers do get drunk and tease girls. When people are drunk they don’t know what they are doing. It’s no big deal.

Shocking confessions of unprofessional behaviour by cab drivers working in call centres. Moreover, a potential danger is lurking for women employees everytime they are driven in taxis unless remedial measures are taken by the companies to curb the menace.  The lax approach by the corporates have taken its toll on innocent victims like Jyoti Choudhari, who was raped and murdered on Nov 1.

These kind of incidents clealy indicate that enough is not being done to verify the antecedents of drivers, many of whom are inexperienced, while some also do have  criminal background.