India's outsourcing boom has put the country on the economic map and money in the pockets of an army of local workers and their employers. But life at the end of the phone line isn't without its drawbacks and alarm bells are ringing at the Ministry of Health: a wave of health problems is hitting call centre staff. Workers in the outsourcing industry, a symbol of the nation's growing prosperity, are burning out.
Call centres across India operate out of gleaming, hi-tech buildings, with more than a million young men and women handling credit card problems, giving bank balances, troubleshooting computers, selling insurance and collecting debts for western customers - mainly Britons and Americans living oceans away.
The money is good, the office atmosphere is often boisterous, like a university campus, and few staff are older than 30. But call centre workers are suffering from ulcers, acid reflux, insomnia, anxiety, mental stress and even heart attacks.
Doctors are concluding that their ill health is a result of shift work, odd hours, nonexistent social lives, erratic eating and relentless pressure to meet demanding targets.
Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss is so dismayed that he is devising a health policy specifically targeting the 1.6 million workers in the call centre industry. 'Teenagers straight out of school and college, looking to make a fast buck, are collapsing in front of their computers,' he said.
Mr Ramadoss is particularly concerned that work-related health problems are exacerbated by the binge-drinking, smoking and hard partying that is rife in the industry. 'We don't want these young people to burn out,' he said.