Indian debt collector calls in the eunuchs

Channel to take heed and bolster credit control departments?

A cure for the spectre of bad debt currently stalking the IT industry may lie in the back streets of Bombay. In this Indian city, a debt-collecting firm has taken to employing eunuchs to embarrass those slow at paying up. The six eunuchs currently employed threaten to remove their saris, bringing shame on offenders, their businesses and their families. For those sceptics out there, bear in mind that this scheme has generated £8,500 in just a few weeks – a tidy sum in rupees, whichever way you look at it. According to today’s Daily Telegraph, BR Shetty, director of the aptly named Unique Recoveries, said: "By the grace of God success is there. People don’t like to be humiliated. We are also giving work to these people. They are very educated but nobody will give them jobs." Shetty has hopes of expanding the business to chase credit card non-payers. "I am close to signing a deal with a foreign bank," he told the Telegraph. "If I win a contract to collect money for credit card defaulters, I will have to employ 100 eunuchs." There are believed to be 150,000 eunuchs in Bombay alone. Once guards to royalty, their lot is not a happy one in modern India. According to Zia Jaffrey’s The Invisibles, A Tale of the Eunuchs of India, eunuchs are seen as outcasts. They are often forced to make their living out of gatecrashing weddings or parties and embarrassing guests until they are paid to leave. ®