Gulf returnees narrate tales of woe

Shabana Begum went to Saudi Arabia to work as a domestic servant to earn some money so that her daughters could get a good education. Instead, she came back to Hyderabad with steel rods in her legs and back. Her employer threw her from the second floor of a building when she asked for her salary, which had not been paid to her for a year.

Shabana rendered her narrative, reflective of the  plight of thousands of Indian workers in the Gulf countries, at a workshop on the problems of AP workers the Gulf countries, organised by the Swadeshi Jagran Manch and the Migrants Rights Council-India here on Thursday.

Today, Shabana, 25, cannot stand or walk properly. “I was tortured like a dog. When I was given food, it would either be stale or left over,” she said, wiping her tears.

Her husband divorced her, leaving her and her two children to beg. Ever since her return to India, her sister, Sultana Begum, has been doing the rounds of government departments to see that Shabana is given access to welfare benefits.

It has been more than 18 months, but there has been no help forthcoming from the government. “The situation has come to such a stage that there is no alternative left for me but to commit suicide,” Shabana said.

Thousands of Indian workers, many of them from Andhra Pradesh, suffer the same fate as Shabana in the Gulf countries. Dozens of them are languishing on the streets or are harassed by companies, agents and employers.

K Yellawa, from Sircilla in Karimnagar, who attended the workshop with her seven-year-old daughter Uma, recalled how she lost her husband Rajaiah, a construction worker in Dubai, two years ago. “He went there with the hope of earning some money so that he could repay his debts, which amounted to `1.20 lakh. But his life became miserable as he was tortured by his employers and forced to work round the clock. Two years ago, he was killed for daring to ask for his wages,” she said. “Now life has become hell for me. Moneylenders come to my house and demand repayment of their loans. The government should should sanction a pension of `500 per month and take care of my daughter’s education too,” she pleaded tearfully. 

MRC vice-president M Bheem Reddy said about 10,000 migrant construction workers from Andhra Pradesh who were on the streets in the UAE due to lack of legal support from the state government. In the last four years, at least 150 have died in prisons as no legal support was provided to them. “We should follow the example of the Kerala government which provides legal aid and rehabilitation packages to people in the Gulf,” he said.