TMCnews Featured Article

With a population of more than 1.25 billion people, India is full of potential as well as many problems it needs to resolve in order to pull many of its citizens from abject poverty. The tech industry accounts for 7.5 percent of the $1.97 trillion GDP, but the impact it has in the country has to be measured by more than monetary gains.

The IT sector is seen as the great equalizer by giving educational opportunities to virtually everyone in the country. Public and private organizations are making a concerted effort to make this possible by providing capital and human resources. Teleperformance, one of the largest BPO firms in the world is encouraging its employees to be ambassadors of change.

The role of these ambassadors is to engage with disadvantaged children by getting involved in their educational and learning process. The push is provided by the Citizen of the World (COTW) initiative program offering books, education, clothing and nourishment to these children. By providing all their needs, the volunteers and the initiative hope to show the kids they can achieve their potential.

“Our primary focus is to support education of under-privileged children within 10 kilometers radius of our offices in Gurgaon, Jaipur and Indore. In the process, our employees embrace the concept of Giving and Citizen Social Responsibility,” said Sanjay Mehta, MD, Teleperformance India.

The effort of the employees is funded by a voluntary deduction of 100 Rupees taken every month from their salary. The funds are used along with the collaboration of Literacy India and other NGOs to provide resources in the rural and semi-urban areas of Gurgaon, as well as other areas in India where Teleperformance (News - Alert) is present.

The COTW initiative in India was launched by Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Teleperformance Daniel Julien in September 2006. The ambassadors of each location provide resources to meet the particular needs of its population. By addressing the problem of each community, COTW is able to resolve real life problems instead of implementing policies.

 “We take our business of creating value in the surrounding quite earnestly. Teleperformance India believes that ‘Citizen’s Social Responsibility’ is about tradition and culture, about imbibing responsible corporate citizenship. The same values are imbibed by the Teleperformers through COTW initiative,” said Sanjay Mehta, who leads India operations of Teleperformance.

Since the first six students were enrolled in Gurgaon in 2006 the COTW initiative now has helped 1,200 students in Gurgaon, Indore and Jaipur.