KOTTAYAM (KERALA): When Nithyamol N J lands at Cochin airport on Saturday, her father M O John, like parents of other nurses, would be celebrating the safe return, but the financial burden faced by the family, would still be burning in his mind.
John, 62, hailing from Kottayam, let his daughter join the Tikrit Teaching Hospital in Iraq around eight months ago, as he thought it would be a ray of hope for his family of five. The family was solely dependent on the meagre earnings of John, a daily wage labourer. For this reason alone, in 2013, he pledged 10 cents of land and the house they owned with Vazhoor Farmer’s Co-operative to avail `1 lakh, despite the high rate of interest. In the meantime, John’s health got deteriorated and he was unable to work.
With the return of Nithyamol, the family’s only earning member, they fear plunging into yet another financial crisis. Nithyamol had been working in Tikrit without any remuneration for the past three months. A good percentage of the nurses were into the fourth month of their jobs. No salaries were to be in the first three months considered as probation period. The salaries promised to them were in the range of `35,000 t0 `45,000.
Her case is not an isolated one. A large number of nurses, who are expected to be back home by Saturday, opted Iraq as the place to seek their fortunes, so that they could shoulder the financial burden of their families.
Many families have availed educational loans. The government officials have blamed the expat workers for the misadventure, stating that there was already a ban on Indian nationals from taking up jobs in Iraq. But many took the risk because of the financial situation back home.Sabithamol, daughter of Sasidharan, hailing from Kollad went to Iraq to repay an education loan of `3.60 lakh availed in 2004. The repayment dues have know gone up to `7 lakh. Sasidharan had to borrow another `2 lakh to send her to Iraq.
“Let her return. Her safety is our paramount concern,” Sasidharan said. C C Jospeh, a tipper lorry driver, whose three daughters are in Iraq, availed nearly `7.5 lakh for the education of his daughters and to meet their visa expenses.
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