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IT and BPO companies hire young graduates. The oldest person in the organization is often less than 40 years old. Most of them come from the middle and lower-middle class and have enjoyed few material luxuries. So, when these youngsters start making good money at such a tender age, people believe this will be a happy ending to the financial miseries in their families. Who would have thought that the price of this prosperity would be their health?
We are all aware that working in an IT firm is no piece of cake. The money is great but it entails working long hours in small cubicles, in front of a computer, with hardly any breaks. There are deadlines to meet and targets to achieve. There are telephone conferences outside of working hours and weeks of travel, away from home. Some even have to migrate to another city and live away from their families.
Needless to say this kind of job has given rise to a myriad of health conditions. Hitherto these conditions were usually seen in the 40s, not in 20-something-year-olds. Dr. Narendra Javdekar, a physician, is surprised to encounter young patients in their 20s and 30s with high blood pressure and even diabetes. "I blame their work culture which promotes eating out too often, late night parties, drinking ... all terrible for the health! Moreover, lack of exercise and a sedentary lifestyle make matters worse. Not to mention the high stress they carry on their little shoulders!"
When you spend hours sitting in front of a computer, you have to be wary of your posture. But nobody cautions these youngsters about this. As a result they land with numerous orthopedic and musculoskeletal complaints. Within a few months of starting work, most of them start complaining of low backache, neck pain, neck stiffness, all sorts of tendinitis, knee pains, heel pains, finger joint pains and what not.
Prolonged periods of staring at the computer screen without blinking causes severe eye strain, involving redness, itching, irritation of the eyes and even blurring of vision.
Women make up about 40 percent of the work force in these industries. Their normal physiology is badly affected by this work routine. Complaints like hormonal imbalances, disturbed menstrual cycles, decreased sexual drive and infertility are more frequent than we can imagine.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg. These physical problems pale against the psychological health problems. "These people have too much contact with the machine and too little interaction with humans. That is the main reason for their psychological troubles," says Suniti Shrotriya, who is an occupational therapist and health counselor in an IT company. "While they are expected to function as a team that does not really materialize. The work is individualized; each one is to himself. There is hardly any human interaction while carrying out the actual tasks."
In fact, they live a life of all work and no play. Time constraints prevent these young boys and girls from developing other aspects of their personality through reading, music, sports or other hobbies. As a result, they suffer from loneliness, depression and anxiety at this tender age. Many have to turn to psychiatrists for help.
"In the olden times, people worked up the ladder gradually; they gained wealth and success over a period of time. So, they had time for processing the achievement. They developed a certain level of maturity and wisdom. But these people today have suddenly acquired more wealth than they can handle. Do they have the maturity, the emotional resources to handle these material resources? I think not," notes psychiatrist Dr. Vasudev Paralikar.
He worries that this "sudden wealth syndrome" has challenged the value system and made it questionable. "There is a general assumption that everything is dispensable and can be purchased; objects and relationships! The importance of material comforts has superseded interpersonal ties. And it has also cursed the youth with feelings of rootlessness and meaninglessness. They are unable to nurture valuable relationships like friendships and family ties. Marriages suffer and children are neglected. This is sowing the seeds of divorces."
Then there is the oh-so common story of those who live away from home. Not only does their nutrition suffer from eating out, but their mental health takes a heavy toll too. "These are young adults who need an older and mature adult to talk to, open their minds to, to talk of their fears and their fatigue. They are emotionally very insecure," observes Shrotriya. They are very vulnerable and lonely. This is the time they need to be protected from falling into bad company and indulging in bad habits, like substance abuse. But there is nobody around to do that. Even the boss at work, who is just in his late thirties, lacks the maturity to understand and help out.
The young graduates working in the BPO's work through the night and this disrupts their circadian rhythm, or internal body clock. This gives rise to many physical and mental malfunctions like fatigue, disorientation and disturbed sleep. In the long run, it can cause manic depression and worsen heart conditions.
"I have noticed that youngsters working in the BPO's are very impatient and have a very low frustration tolerance. They also suffer from depression and anxiety," comments psychiatrist Dr. Archana Javdekar. She attributes this to constant work stress due to too much competition. Their pockets are full, but they really lack the capability to manage their fortune. This has led to such high-risk behaviors as loose sexual practices, drug addictions and alcohol abuse.
"I have a patient who tried to kill himself by consuming insecticide. He is just 21 years old! He works in a BPO and a girl from his office broke his heart. Gets you thinking why one would want to end one's life when there is a promising career ahead. I want this boy to take time off from work and dissociate himself from that environment, but that is proving to be very difficult. This is the hazard of working for some 12 hours in confined spaces. They begin to believe that that place is home. They are so anxious outside that shell."
Today, the annual revenue generated from the IT and BPO industry in India is in the range of US$21 billion, and it is still rising. It almost equals the revenue that the country spends on oil imports! It seems that the brains of India are buying her energy needs. But does anyone realize that this is at the cost of the health of the young generation?
A progressive nation needs a productive youth. Youth that is unstable in the mind and weak in the body is not a productive youth. Turning a blind eye to the existing problems and pretending they do not exist will only increase them exponentially in due course of time.
It is time to make changes in the work culture to promote the physical and mental wellbeing of the young employees. Copying Western models of self-help groups and corporate managed programs may not suffice. Indian society and culture has certain peculiarities. A program needs to be structured and designed accordingly. Solutions are desperately needed to fight the "sudden wealth syndrome" in the Indian way!
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(Dr. Pradnya Kulkarni is a clinical pathologist from India. She worked as a consultant pathologist in a private laboratory in Pune before moving to Hong Kong with her husband and young daughter. She is also a freelance writer, focusing on medical issues of public concern. ©Copyright Pradnya Kulkarni.)
