The infamous case of the torture of a young girl from Orissa by her Indian
diplomat employer, who had taken her to France for domestic help, caused much
embarrassment to the Indian authorities back home when she had to be rescued
and sheltered by the French police. A similar case was reported with regard to
a Kuwaiti diplomat posted in the United States (PDF). Nepali domestic maids
traveling through India on their way to the Gulf nations also suffer similar
abuse at the hands of their agents-both in India as well as in their countries
of destination, if they make it there at all. What places them at the mercy of
these "agents" is the fact that a tremendous amount of financial expenditure-a
substantial portion of which lines the pockets of these middlemen-goes into
acquiring a visa, passport, ticket and other travel requirements; "buying" the
chance to travel to these lands of opportunity subsequently pushes the family
deeper into the debt quagmire.
Economic compulsions are behind many of these women's decisions to travel
abroad for work-many of whom would not have even previously traveled beyond
their villages-both of which increase the scope for exploitation.
The controversial ban on bars/nightclubs in the city of Mumbai (a case that is
pending in the Indian Courts) has had a similar effect of forcing many women
who initially worked as bar dancers to now cross shores illegally or under the
garb of domestic workers and nightclub dancers, only to find themselves forced
to into abusive situations, including sex work.
The critical injuries (a broken back and multiple fractures) suffered by an
Indian housemaid from Andhra Pradesh, in Bahrain recently after she jumped from
the third floor of an apartment building to escape an abusive employer is not
an isolated case.
A few years back, a 47-year-old maid from Andhra hanged herself for similar
reasons. At around the same time (in 2003) a 28-year-old Indian domestic worker
was hospitalized after enduring three months of abuse at the hands of her
employer.
The conditions are no better for other South Asian expatriate women workers as
only last year a Bangladeshi woman working in the UAE as a domestic servant was
thrown from a fourth-floor balcony by her five Bangladeshi traffickers on her
refusal to work as a prostitute. The near isolated nature of the work is what
allows the abuse to persist since, as migrants with limited access to the
outside world, they are unable to build support systems for themselves.
Despite substantial sums of money being remitted back to the country by the six
million Indian expatriates working in the Gulf states, both workers'
associations and human rights groups consistently report a maltreatment of
these migrant workers with cases of sexual abuse registering a steep rise in
recent years. According to official estimates around half a million (5.5 lakh)
people leave India annually for work, while unofficial estimates peg it at two
million. Recruited as nurses and maids on the surface, their future depends on
the agents who are the conduits for their passage.
These phenomena are common to many South Asian countries with limited or no job
opportunities; one in every 19 Sri Lankans work abroad, nearly 600,000 as
housemaids, earning it the sobriquet of "country of housemaids" in Saudi
Arabia. Pregnancies from rape, illicit human trafficking schemes, prostitution
or other abuse induce premature return to their own country.
To increase women's sense of preparedness for working abroad, the Ministry of
Women and Child Development has teamed up with an Indian tobacco and
hospitality company and the Red Cross to train these women so that they are
better equipped and more confident in their dealings with both the middlemen
(who are the first rung of exploiters) as well as the employers. According to
the Minister, in an attempt to keep track of those leaving India, the women
will be accredited with the ministry and compulsory remittances to their
provident fund account in India will assist in the process of maintaining a
profile on them.
Recently the government banned women below 30 from seeking employment as
housemaids or domestic workers in countries where the emigration clearance is
demanded. The only "exception" to the case would be made for women who return
to India on leave and express a wish to return to their employers. With poverty
and indebtedness as the primary reasons for these women to move so far away, it
is unlikely that they would willingly give up lucrative jobs. While there are
extreme cases of women unable to return home because their employers
confiscated their passports, the fact that women return to their unsafe work
environments very often has more to do with their economic situation back home
than with the "good behaviour" of the employer. Additionally, the ministry
would need to take into account that the instances of sexual and physical abuse
are not restricted to only certain countries. With the vulnerability of women
to sex crimes a reality even in situations which are more familiar, their
defencelessness becomes particularly poignant in places where they barely know
the language.
