An Indian view of Outsourcing, via Grand Forks, ND

Grand Forks Herald

VIEWPOINT: Call-center outsourcing hurts all

By Lalit Jha

GRAND FORKS - Outsourcing, especially outsourcing of call centers, is not in the United States' best interest because it snatches from citizens the basic right to demand from employers the perks and privileges that are needed for a decent living.

And while outsourcing does yield job opportunities to the English-speaking unemployed youths back in my home country, India, I don't think call-center outsourcing is in India's long-term interest, either.

That's because outsourcing threatens to take away the advantage we now have in the field of scientific and technical manpower. It does this by luring away young college students to call centers - students who otherwise who would have spent time on their studies.

I did not carry such an opinion about outsourcing until a few months ago, when I arrived here.

I was under the impression that the companies outsourced because there were no takers for call-center jobs or not enough qualified workers in fields such as software.

However, after visiting the Red Lake, Minn., area a week ago - an area where the unemployment rate is as high as 65 percent and a majority of the people are below the poverty line - I feel companies that outsource are running away from their social responsibilities and civic duty.

These companies prefer outsourcing because they get cheap, English-speaking youths for call centers and labor for factories, thus generating more profit.

In addition, these multinationals outsource because they do not want to fulfill their social obligations. In fact, they use outsourcing as a tool to keep American workers mum.

"If you demand anything or assert yourself, we will outsource, and you will lose this job," the workers are told. So, be satisfied with whatever you get.

True, advocates of outsourcing argue that it lets them hire the least difficult and most compliant work force and also helps generate more profits.

But I am suspicious because of my experiences in New Delhi, India, and its neighborhoods such as Gurgoan and Noida - places where we find many call centers.

In India, as in America, companies feel they have no social obligations when they outsource. They take advantage of legal loopholes and large-scale unemployment, essentially forcing people to work 12 hours at a stretch - most of those hours at night because of the time difference.

Such stressful work makes many workers sick after a few months. But employers do not offer health benefits - so within a year or two, it is back to square one for these young college students.

And often, by the time they realize what they have done to their careers, they lose interest in studies.

Mind you, this call-center cycle affects only a portion of the middle class, in that middle-class young people are hired by the call centers because of their fluency in English. Young people from smaller cities or rural areas (where unemployment is acute) rarely get a chance to work at call centers.

Furthermore, it is the same middle class who over the years has been the major source of global manpower in the field of software, information technology and science. The United States has been a major beneficiary of this.

Yet now, it's being threatened by the call-center-led outsourcing culture.

Although it's premature to make any conclusions, a recent survey by the Council of Graduate Schools revealed that the number of Indian students applying for U.S. visas for graduate studies declined by 9 percent in two years.

Under these circumstances, there is an urgent need to regulate outsourcing. Outsourcing needs to be a "win-win" situation, as it is in software - not a "lose-lose" situation as it is in call centers, in which deserving people lose their jobs so that business owners can profit.

Jha is a journalist from India. He is accompanying his wife in Grand Forks, where she is doing postdoctoral work at UND. He can be reached at lalitkjha@gmail.com.

Gee. I think I outsourced this entire post. Wait, I bolded the part that said:

I was under the impression that the companies outsourced because there were no takers for call-center jobs or not enough qualified workers in fields such as software.

Call that my managerial value-adding contribution Thanks for reading--come again. And remember, my door is always open.