It was not the pay that made Prashant Singh join a call centre in the Delhi satellite town of Noida. It was certainly not the working hours – 6pm to 3am – or the abuse from American callers. “I did it for the girls,” he told The Times as he surveyed the crowd at a popular Delhi nightclub. “When I was living at home, it was hard to date girls. Now it’s easy – I’ve had three girlfriends in the last year.”

Like many of India’s 1.3 million call-centre workers, Mr Singh finds that living away from home and earning decent money gives him more freedom than ever before, not least when it comes to sex. The 23-year-old shares a flat with two male friends and spends much of his spare time drinking, dancing – and sleeping – with female colleagues. But with greater sexual freedom there is greater risk: India has the world’s third-highest caseload of HIV/Aids after Nigeria and South Africa.

Experts caution that call-centre workers should be considered a high-risk group, alongside truckers, sex workers and intravenous drug users, if India is to prevent an African-style epidemic. In response, a growing number of companies are launching mandatory HIV/ Aids education programmes.

“Private companies can play a key role by providing information, education and counselling,” said Anand Tiwari, of the UNAids India office. “Call-centre workers are especially at risk because they are young, away from home and often under stress, so it is easier to get into risky behaviour.”

There are no estimates for the number of call-centre workers with HIV, but there is evidence that they are more promiscuous than most Indians. A survey of 1,000 workers at iEngergizer, a call-centre company in Noida, found last year that 11.1 per cent had had more than five sexual partners and 19.2 per cent had had unprotected sex. Nationally, the percentage of Indians who had had more than five partners was 6.7, according to another survey done in 2005.

The survey of iEnergizer staff was carried out by Durex and co-sponsored by the Global Business Coalition on HIV/Aids (GBC). “India’s call centres have created unprecedented wealth,” said Richard Holbrooke, the former US Ambassador to the United Nations, who heads GBC. “Though in an obvious economic boom, such growth challenges traditional society, creating social conditions that can promote HIV transmission.”

India has long accused the West of exaggerating its HIV/Aids problem, and in July UNAids revised its estimate for the number of HIV carriers from 5.7 million – the highest in the world – to between 2 million and 3.1 million. Indian officials claim that there is no evidence that call-centre workers are at greater risk than others. “It’s premature to say that,” said Sujatha Rao, the head of the National Aids Control Organisation.

She agreed that private companies could do more to promote awareness among the young since more than 35 per cent of Aids cases in India were among the under25s and half of new infections were in the 15-24 age group. “Private companies are important because they employ lots of young people,” Dr Rao said. “Their reach is greater than ours and they’ve got the facilities and the resources.”

The iEnergizer management has now introduced mandatory HIV/Aids education lessons for its 4,000 employees and on World Aids Day staff decorated their workstations with condoms. “There is a cultural change going on,” said Ashish Mittal, iEnergizer’s vice-president. “India used to be very conservative, but things are changing. People are becoming more independent, they are trying things out, having live-in relationships.” Several dozen companies in India, including Western giants such as Intel, Microsoft and Ford, have launched similar programmes.

Some call centres say that they are being unfairly targeted because their staff work at night. Many female employees agree, and say that they face harassment as a result.

Male employees tend to relish their reputation as Lotharios. Nakul, 25, who worked in a call centre for two years, said that it was easy to seduce female colleagues. “If the girl is easygoing, guys can just get her drunk and take advantage of her. Easygoing girls are also OK with this.”

Deadly spread

— 2-3.1m Indians have HIV. Only Nigeria and South Africa have bigger caseloads

— 24,000 Indians receive antiretroviral medication

Source: UNAids

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