The Financial Express
Posted: Wednesday, Nov 03, 2010 at 0021 hrs IST
Posted: Wednesday, Nov 03, 2010 at 0021 hrs IST
At the Cherlapally jail, Bangalore-based Radiant Infosystems has launched an initiative to train undertrials and convicts in data entry for back office operations. Hardware support is being provided by project partner TCS. Targeted work extends across IT inputs into UIDAI, rural development programmes and international financial firms. This project has been in the news for some months now, with the rumour mill speculating whether former Satyam chairman and prison inmate B Ramalinga Raju would be the BPO’s CEO. He won’t. But all inmates with a track record of ‘good’ behaviour would be eligible for the programme, including Raju. Those who make the BPO cut would obviously make more money than those who put in an ordinary prison workday—Rs 100 as against Rs 15 a day. An obvious concern is the prisoners’ access to confidential client data, and the possibility of abuse. Not only do project guides assure that supervision will be foolproof, there is also lots of international precedence for no-tampering prison BPOs.
From Austria to America, prisoners have been handling call centre work for many years now. Such moves not only improve possibilities of post-prison rehabilitation but also mitigate the costs of administering incarceration. To elaborate upon the US example, when prisoners dish out everything from Victoria’s Secret unmentionables to Starbucks sachets and Microsoft mouses, when publicly listed prison firms regularly outperform the broader market, prison call centres have been endorsed by Bill Gates himself. With a prison BPO under its belt, could India now consider privatising prisons?
From Austria to America, prisoners have been handling call centre work for many years now. Such moves not only improve possibilities of post-prison rehabilitation but also mitigate the costs of administering incarceration. To elaborate upon the US example, when prisoners dish out everything from Victoria’s Secret unmentionables to Starbucks sachets and Microsoft mouses, when publicly listed prison firms regularly outperform the broader market, prison call centres have been endorsed by Bill Gates himself. With a prison BPO under its belt, could India now consider privatising prisons?