Transcript: Transformed Workplaces

NARRATOR: India's past and future are connected by these BPO businesses. The colonial legacy of English-speaking education is advancing millions of Indian workers into the middle class. And they are changing the face of the country.

NARRATOR: About half of all BPO workers are women. Renuka Chibber Khot is one of many Indian women whose lives have been transformed.

Before she joined Gecis, she was a doctor working at a government hospital.

RENUKA: Basically what I am doing is nothing related to my qualification of being a doctor. It's managing people and ensuring that whatever work that we are supposed to do, we are delivering that on time.

RENUKA: You wanted to get promoted, you want this, you want that, but please be ready to then pitch in for initiatives like these.

So if you're doing your processes and you're delivering on your CTQs, that is nothing great that you are doing. You are getting paid for that.

NARRATOR: She makes more money here than she ever did in medicine, driving her team of mortgage insurance processors who work for American clients.

RENUKA: This is a very, very fair company. I will support you the day you start questioning. But question with decency. Do not be offensive.

RENUKA: I will say even my education and my exposure at hospital did not change me as much as this place has changed me. It has given me so much confidence. I was a girl who used to stammer. I have never stood up in front of 10 people and spoken. They look up at me; that's a great feeling.

NARRATOR: Her colleague, Santosh Kohli, is not the typical Gecis employee. Born into a poor family, she is still struggling to learn English.

SANTOSH (subtitled): No one in my home speaks English, nor did I go to an English school.

We had English as a subject at school, but we never used to speak it.

NARRATOR: A community organization recommended her for a clerical position at Gecis.

SANTOSH (subtitled): When I started here, I was afraid to speak to anyone, so no one talked to me.

Renuka told me that my work was okay, but there was one problem.

"You don't speak to anyone. Why not?" "You should speak to everyone, mingle with them, that's how you'll learn."

Renuka has helped me the most.