Deepak Patel

Social security on India's Obama agenda

With the outsourcing backlash in the US getting shriller, New Delhi wants to push for a pact that will help Indian professionals paying one billion US dollars annually to the social security schemes there, to repatriate their money. The issue is likely to come up during President Barack Obama's .

The matter was discussed at a recent high-level meeting chaired by principal secretary to the Prime Minister,

There are estimated 300,000 Indians working in USA under non-immigrant visa category like H1B, L1A, L1B1. Each employee now pays 15 per cent of the salary to the social security scheme.

Since their visa term is a maximum of 6 to 7 years, they can't repatriate the money because under US law, ten years' of payment is necessary in order to get social security benefits.

A big challenge for IT employees

An increasing number of IT professionals have been finding it difficult to handle emotional stress, according to experts. An ‘occupational hazard,' the stress related to work needs to be addressed without delay, they emphasise.

“Coping with stress and striving for mental health welfare should be a matter of concern for all and not treated simply as a lifestyle problem of the ‘IT phenomenon',” says Nithya Chandrasekaran, a consultant physician for many IT companies in the city. Post-recession, employees feel pressured to perform well.

Regular occupational problems such as wrist problems due to constant handling of the mouse, slip disc and eye fatigue are common now, but handling stress that arises owing to fear of losing job or to cope with the increasing competition, affects the employee's performance, eventually, taking a major toll on his health.

“As you gain experience in the IT industry, you are endowed with more responsibilities that involve working under stricter deadlines, managing more people from business units across countries, and reworking on millions of lines of code to suit the changing patterns of client requirements,” says Satish Menon, who has been working in the IT industry for 12 years now.

His job ensures a quality lifestyle for his family and holds a lot fascination for onlookers, but the implications on health, especially due to increase in levels of stress, could be serious.

However, some employees feel that most activities tend to prepare them for the stress and not necessarily help prevent it. “These recreational activities engage new recruits and only a few interested individuals,” says Aniket Pradhan, a senior engineer with a leading MNC in Chennai. “What really keeps you going here is your ability to beat stress at work and the rating you get from your managers at the end of the year.”