From duping clients to institutional entrepreneurship in Mauritius: the account of a former BPO worker who became an activist

Abstract

This ‘on the front line’ account allows Shankar Veerta to voice out his concerns as an activist in Mauritius. Shankar’s account provides insights into the recent work of collective actors who, as institutional entrepreneurs, aim to bring social change in Mauritius and support vulnerable workers. Mauritius has achieved its heralded economic success by adjusting consistently to liberalized regimes of the global economy. As a former business process outsourcing (BPO) worker, however, Shankar casts a critical lens on challenges facing workers operating in the new BPO sector of Mauritius. He then explains how and why he joined a local political movement that supported non-unionized workers during major industrial disputes in the BPO sector in 2011. Finally, Shankar describes the movement’s attempts to initiate divergent change through enabling conditions that have allowed it to start raising awareness among Mauritian workers and citizens.