HYDERABAD: The business process outsourcing (BPO) unit to be located at a prison is ready for the first call but no IT company is coming forward to give the prisoners any projects. The BPO at the Cherlapally central Prison was set up in May 2010 and the beginning seemed to hold promise with three IT companies announcing that they would like to work with it. project is ready with working staff and equipment to work with Information Technology companies. But after that intial expression of interest, they cried off.The staff and equipment are ready. Prison superintendent KC Srinivas Rao says, “We don't know when IT companies will come forward to give work orders to the BPO unit, but we are ready.”The BPO unit, set up in partnership with the IT firm Radiant Info Systems, was recently given work orders from India Post and Life Insurance Corporation, but the schedules have not yet been fixed for the project. Despite the lag, the BPO hopes to bag orders from national and international clients. The Cherlapally BPO was set up with the aim of bagging work related to application management and development, data entry operations, testing and quality assurance, and outsource payroll processes.It took the unit six months to rig up its equipment. so far two batches of 25 prison inmates each have been trained, and a third of another 25 is in the classroom, according to instructor E Anjaiah.The BPO selects 25 prison inmates per batch. To qualify for BPO training, prisoners who have a minimum of Plus Two education are subjected to a prelim test. If successful, they are drawn together in batches of 25 to be trained in BPO skills.Anjaiah said inmates shortlisted for the first three batches were trained by experts and certified to work for the prison BPO. The instructor says it was initially difficult to motivate prisoners to train for the BPO. But periodic counselling helped to give them hope that this training could be useful to them in the long run. The selected prisoners are first given training in basic computer skills and intensive BPO training. Out of security considerations, the inmates are not given access to internet during training. Also, the software provided to them is basic, such as MS Office.However, there has been attrition of BPO-qualified prisoners due to the long hiatus since the setting up in May 2010. A few of the inmates who were trained for the BPO have subsequently been released from prison. Fortunately, they have got jobs out there, according to Anjaiah.
Comments
0 comment