Thinking that I’ve gone crazy with the title? read on and you will understand what I mean…
We have come a long way since the times of Aangrez jails where the only work available to inmates was chakki peesing, as was heard and even seen in movies as to how jail inmates were involved in on-field works.
Radiant Infosystems, an Indian outsourcing company, which provides call center services, is all set to employ 250 Indian prisoners into processing insurance claim forms and bank accounts applications for Indian clients. The prisoners are claimed to be from Hyderabad’s Cherlapally Central jail.
Gradually, the firm will expand the net to include customers from Britain and United States. In fact, these jail inmates are also targeted to be delegated works in the arena of customer enquiry phone calls in the future.
Radiant claims that it is already serving elite global clients such as Marks and Spencer and the Royal Bank of Scotland, as a part of the scheme that envisions helping criminals to improve their work place skills and career prospects as and when they become independent from their punishment term.
The company has also clarified that there is no security related threat as the prisoners will have no access to sensitive information including passwords and bank accounts.
The Director of Radiant Infosystems C. Narayanacharyulu said,
“Our company visited the Jail and we found there are many prisoners who have computer knowledge and are educated. There is enough infrastructure and manpower. There is a general trend to shift [call centers] from urban areas to rural areas, so it was a part of that shift,”
Though, it sounds outlandishly risky on the face of it; the Indian company has clarified that there are no risks related to sensitive data points. However, the company needs to be agile and alert to ensure that once calls are directly handled by the prisoners (as the company plans to do so, in future); any potential act and behavior does not put the firm’s name at risk of being maligned by the jail inmate.
Personally, I also feel that the government or related authorities should maintain a register for the list of prisoners who are involved in providing such outsourcing or any other services on behalf of various companies, for security issues.
Other than that, if this step can play its role to make the society a better place to live in, corporate can surely indulge in such innovative yet effective ways of improving society as a whole.
What is your take on this highly debatable move ?