Young literate teenagers join the Indian Call Centres for a quick buck and they get it. What do they lose? and why? British callers may be infuriated when they discover that the company they are telephoning has moved its customer service centre to India. But their frustration is as nothing compared with the heart attacks, ulcers and insomnia afflicting those on the other end of the line. Workers at a customer service call centre in India Staff in call centres say they have been shocked at the ferocity of the verbal attacks they encounter Research carried out by India's booming call centre industry has found the 1.6 million people who work in them, mostly in their twenties, are plagued by ailments arising from the stress of dealing with irate customers. The Indian government is so concerned about the problem that it is preparing to launch a health strategy for the workers. A study conducted by Strathclyde University for the Union of IT Enabled Services, which informally represents call centre workers, found that 77 per cent felt "very" pressurised and 45 per cent identified difficult customers as the main source of their stress. The salaries paid by the call centre industry have transformed the lives of a generation of young, middle-class Indians, giving them independence and money to spend on shopping, eating out, holidays and parties, but the price is proving high. "Youngsters love spending the kind of money their parents only dreamt about, but I'm worried that stress and illness will turn them into zombies," said Karthik Shekhar, the union's general secretary. Researchers estimated that heart disease, strokes and diabetes would cost India more than £100 billion in lost productivity over the next 10 years. Staff in call centres dealing with customers in Britain say they have been shocked at the ferocity of the verbal attacks they encounter. Nidhi Aggarwal, 24, said she had never heard some of the insulting language used - including the word "Paki" as a term of abuse - before she began taking orders for a British catalogue company, which routes its customers' calls to a Bangalore call centre. "At first, I thought I'd get used to it, but it's been a year now and it's not getting easier," she said. "On its own, maybe I could cope with the abuse, but there's also the stress of finishing calls in one minute and hardly having time for breaks." HeartMath is the perfect way forward. Easy to learn, portable, attractive to younsters, non-denominational. TRCF Perfect solution to stress in the BPO's Dr Anand MBBS MRCGP (London) anandjee