I always end up with an argument with Cab Drivers, Canteen folks and other support functions which cater to the needs of the IT and BPO personnel whenever I have an encounter with them, it always starts like this. " These IT & BPO guys increased the home rent, land price, food cost etc.," This is the standard complain most people make.
How far this is true? A brief introspection will help us . 10 years back, government jobs were the only option and there was unemployment everywhere. (Now its doubled!!)Today due to the reach of education even to the remote villages and the dilution of the caste system, more Indians are educated and available in the job market. Coupled with the advancement in Information Technology, more Indians were able to work across geographies without much difficulty. If not IT,most of these Indians would have landed up in the Arabian desert.
Again, the benefit of IT was reaped by the middle class and above and not those who were poor and cannot afford the costly fees of an Engineering degree. Also, actual money thrown to get an engineering degree might not always get an IT job. One must also understand that there is a huge number of under-employed people in the IT field. In this field you will find a mechanical engineer, civil engineer, Chemical engineer writing codes for a supermarkek, bank, cosmetic products etc., May look funny!!
Well coming to the earlier point, who actually got the benefit of IT revolution in India, it is everyone. More than the IT & ITES folks it is the support functions which benefited the most. With a minimum education; Brokers, Realtors, Cab owners, Caterers, Gardeners, House keepers,Hoteliers got a very good business opportunity and today it is a multi million dollar industry. Thats what NASSCOM says.
For the Software folks its a raw deal. Living away from home, having little money to lead the life of the developed world, uncertain future and job insecurity threatens the very existence of the IT world. Mostly Indians living through an "on-site opportunity" live the life of a pauper not because they are paid low but they want to save more to buy a house in India and end up paying lesser home loan.
Amidst all the struggle, why is that Indians did not rally behind the IT professionals during the recession? Pretty simple, IT world did not care for the society. Plugging the ipod and traveling in a cab or a bus and ending up in an air conditioned office and return home to discuss the share market and real estate the IT folks lost touch with the society around. Though there is some improvement pertaining to their participation in social matters, it is still not a significant one.
It was heartening to see the IT world rallying for the Eelam Tamil cause in Chennai. There are also some groups within their organizations supporting social activities.
Indian IT community does not have an union. It is a great factor for the corporates but having in mind that there are no stringent labour laws around rights of the software community. They are vulnareable for exploitation which is already underway.
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One of the biggest disadvantage of being an Indian software engineer (especially in the bigger companies) is not that they are unable to serve the society or help others, but they are unable to help themselves! Any job requires people to learn skills (Unless you are talking about a govt job - even there atleast politics is learnt) but an IT professional / BPO Professional is only doing those jobs which actually need not require that engineering degree that you are talking about. Will you refuse me if I say that a B.Sc graduate or even a 12th Graduate can do the job of an IT professional, if sufficiently trained??
If your answer is yes, then IT professionals need to re-think. Even if not officially, they at least need to contribute personally to the coding efforts that is going on in GNU community etc. which would improve their skills. No wonder there are no major Indian software products!!
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