Role of Humanitarian Logistics in Assuring Safety of Women Professionals in IT Sector

Gender-based violence against women has become such an endemic catastrophe in Indian society that very recently in a land mark judgment the apex court of India ruled that sexual offence against women is an offence against society. After the brutal sexual assault case of Delhi December 2012, women's safety issues have taken the front seat in the IT & BPO industry in view of the fact that this industry mainly operates at night. This paper attempts to analyze the issues of safety and security the women employees face in the Information Technology sector with special reference to their system of transportation. In this research Logistics performance in the humanitarian context has been linked to gender issues. This is an empirical study conducted on the women employees of BPO companies located at Sector V, Salt Lake, Kolkata, The “IT Hub” of West Bengal. It also attempts to draw a comparative picture of the views from IT sector (perception of its employees) and perception of external world in connection with safety and security of women working at IT sector. The study found, there has been tremendous perversion in cultural attitudes toward the women and they feel insecure in the sphere of their work particularly due to lack of proper transportation system. This inefficiency of the processes and systems involved in mobilizing people, resources, skills and knowledge to help women affected by insecurity during their transportation to workplace is resulting in serious hindrance to gender inclusivity in IT sector. On the basis of the findings of the study certain mechanisms have been suggested from Human Resource Management perspective for the improvement of safety & security of women employed in the IT sector emphasizing on developing a secured transportation system for them drawing the inputs from different literatures of secondary sources.