Women techies bang on CM's door over infrastructure

If IT has given Bangalore a distinct place in the world arena, so also has its poor infrastructure. And it is the women employees of IT firms in far flung areas like Electronics City, Hosur Road and Whitefield, who are complaining loudly.

A delegation of women techies working with leading IT firms like HP, Wipro, Viteos and Infosys whose offices are located in these areas away from the inner city on Wednesday met Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and IT Secretary Vidya Shankar.

Their main complaints were around their experience of commuting to work which was so stressful that it was adversely affecting their health and family lives.

The greatest problems were faced by those who worked along Hosur Road or Electronics City, which has to be accessed by that road.

They said commuting for four hours daily was upsetting the work-life balance. "The God-given gratifying role and time with our little ones is getting lost every day due to more travel time arisen out of poor infrastructure. The golden three-hour zone between 6 pm and 9 pm that a working mother enjoys everyday with their little ones, is getting lost due to commuting," said Aruna Newton, a techie who was part of the delegation.

Details of the meeting with the chief minister were made available in a press release from a communications firm which declined to put reporters in touch with some of the delegate members.

According to Rama N S, another member of the delegation, travelling on the perilous Hosur Road is proving a health hazard.

This is resulting in an alarming increase in miscarriages that mothers-to-be are going through and also affecting the health of their toddlers as most young mothers bring them through all this everyday to crèche facilities closer to their work place, she said, according to the release.

"In all my decades of working life, I have never seen employee morale at such an all time low," she added.

Another techie Radhadevi spoke of broken families resulting from parents not spending enough time with their children.

According to the delegation, "The CM has promised to follow the suggestions in the letter and speedily expedite the infrastructure projects. He has also promised to discuss the projects in detail over the next few days and assured actions in next six to eight weeks."