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Call Centers Discrimination -- Roots In Casteism

Taking up the issues of discrimination against call center employees Gaurav Sabnis writes:

People feel that the work in call centres is only about answering phones, and offers no satisfaction or growth or whatever. People expressing these opinions, will also, at other times exprss sentiments like "In Western countries, there is dignity in labour. No job is considered bad. Even plumbers, postmen, bus drivers etc are considered respectable people". Which is why the whole point behind trashing the nature of work in a call centre is lost on me. It is important work. It is necessary in the day-to-day lives of everyone. Customer service is of vast importance in today's marketplace. Now that we pay bills, book air tickets, and even rail tickets through call centers or back offices, how can we dismiss BPO work as below dignity.

In my opinion, this whole call-centre-bashing exercise is an unconscious expression of the deeprooted prejudices in our collective minds put in place due to the caste system. The whole idea of the caste system was, only a few jobs are respectable. All other jobs, be they menial or trade-related, were secondary. So what a brahmin does was admirable, while what the cunning sahukar or the filthy shudra does, was not.

Gaurav further reasons:

A plush restaurant, an expensive discotheque on a weekend, mobile showrooms, car showrooms, apparel showrooms..... all these domains which were earlier restricted only to the engineer-doctor-types or the rich-kids were now invaded by hordes of call centre employees. The "caste system" was breaking down.

So naturally a softare engineer would ask himself.... here I slog to get into an engineering college, then slog to get an engineering degree, the slog to get placed, and now I slog writing code. This fellow didn't give two hoots about his graduation, whiled his time away, had to deal with much simpler course material in college, and now all he has to do is turn up for an interview, answer phone calls in a foreign accent, and get the same pay as me? Where is the justice in this world?

It is this sort of subconscious thinking that makes us all take potshots at the call centre employees

Gaurav Questions:

I heard Chetan Bhagat say on TV "Call center jobs are there in India because no one in the West wants to do those jobs". I wonder if he followed the 2004 US Presidential elections where outsourcing was made a big issue because it was thought of as "job stealing". So if the jobs are so unwanted in the US, Mr. Bhagat, why is there a hue and cry over their being stolen?

Sandeep discusses the issue further in Call Centers and the Caste System:

The idea of the caste system was to provide a means of earning one’s livelihood respectably. Dignity of labour in other words. In its original conception, a person’s caste was decided on his inclination and what can be crudely translated as the “basic nature” of the person. Thus, if a person was a Brahmin by birth not inclined to studies/learning/renunciation and chose instead to master a skill or engage in business, he was free to do so and could move to become a businessman. As for the “cunning sahukar,” there’s only one point I’d like to make. If we go through the bulk of the backward class/dalit revival literature, the common refrain that runs through is woven around the great “Brahmin-bania conspiracy.” The word “Shudra” in Sanskrit can be expanded as shuchaat dravati iti shudrah. The word “shuchaat” is derived from the root, Shuch which means clean. Thus we have, one who brings about cleanliness. For the record, the original ideal of a Brahmin was to live in poverty and always engage himself in contemplation/meditation. This poverty he had to choose voluntarily. That is truly admirable.

Sandeep supports the prejudice by reasoning:

The most probable historical reason for Gaurav’s said prejudice can be traced to the turn of the 20th century. The British education system had begun to turn out its “finished products” whose learning was suited to oil the wheels of the Empire: the bureaucrats, the doctors, engineers and the rest. Native systems of knowledge and education were slowly being replaced. Thus the respect one derived from being recognized as a vedic scholar was transferred to that of being called saheb, babu, and the like. It is here, properly, that we can trace the root of calling some professions respectable. As I said, it has nothing to do with the caste system.

The current slamming of call centers as something despicable is the contribution of Leftists starting with the infamous Cyber Coolie article by Praful Bidwai. Everybody in their right minds–that includes people like Gaurav and myself–mostly the urban youth have long since been weaned away from the idea of a “respectable” and “non-respectable” job. However, the prejudice that Gaurav speaks of can also be seen from another perspective: from time immemorial, societies have given a special place to a man who works using his brain over someone who uses his physical abilities. For example: why is a political advisor given so much money and privileges over say a soldier? The same can be said of a corporate VP over say, a clerk. This prejudice exists everywhere.

Sandeep wonders:

Caste system was prevalent in India for as long as one can remember, but casteism was unheard of. The former enables social integration by respecting difference but the latter seeks to splinter society into a million islands of separate identities. We earlier could recognize the four predominant castes but today we have a few hundred sub-castes within each caste. Those below the Shudras are called Panchamas, and among the Panchamas, we have a right-left division, and then as if “Dalit” was not large enough, we have Dalit Christians, and a gargantuan “Other Backward Castes” which gives scope for further splintering. Where will it all end?

Kudos to Gaurav, who dared to connect the discrimination against call center employees to the deep-rooted casteism prevalent in Indian society that segregates jobs as “respectable” and “non-respectable”.

I seriously question the veracity of Sandeep reasoning for supporting the origins of the caste system. I keep hearing this bullshit argument that “Caste system was created with good intensions.” I don’t condemn the point that a person who is more talented needs respect and a honorable position in the society than a person who is not so talented, however I don’t see any reasoning why this talented persons children, grand children, great great great grandchildren should get the better treatment in the society even though they turnout to be total trash. I like to name this kind of thinking as a bootlicking, sycophancy, yada yada yada, last but not the least ‘casteist’. Sandeep, how can you even think of supporting the Frankenstein ‘caste system’ that breeds ‘casteism’ and discriminates against fellow Indian ‘human beings’ for centuries? I wonder if we can ever stop thinking that this evil discriminating caste system was created for good reasons.

Posted by Ramdhan Yadav at November 21, 2005 08:13 AM Perma Link