CHENNAI: Three female domestic workers from Tamil Nadu who were recently rescued by National Domestic Workers Movement narrated the horror they were forced to live through after being trafficked to Kuwait. Speaking at a press conference in Chennai on Monday, they said they were forced to pay up to Rs 1.65 lakhs to agents who trafficked them if they wanted to return home.
They said they faced different forms of torture from being held hostage to verbal and physical abuse until the paid their agents the money they demanded. Vasantha Mani, one of the victims, said, "I was made to work for 16-20 hours a day. They promised to pay me Rs 40,000 for working at one house, but I was made to work at two big houses and paid only Rs 20,000." She said she was provided by her employers only one filling meal a day.
"They would give me only coffee decoction in the morning. I'll get my lunch only by late noon, by when I would be dizzy and tired," she said.
When she told her agent that she did not want to work there, she claimed that her agent tried coercing her to work. "When I refused, he said that I should pay Rs 2 lakhs if I wanted to come back to Tiruppur where my home is," she said adding that she was held hostage at the agent's office for 45 days until her husband had mobilized the money to release her.
Amudhavalli, who hails from Thiruvannamalai, said that she was lured into going to Kuwait because her husband was sick and she was the primary bread-winner of the family. "We were living on the mortgage and I thought if I earned Rs 40,000 a month, I'll be able to stabilize our financial crisis in two years," she said claiming that her employers too had hit her many times.
She rued that her employers once pushed her to the ground and choked her. "When I wanted to leave, they said that they bought me for Rs 7 lakh from my agent and I had to repay it. The local agent in Tamil Nadu, sent a video of my husband telling me that he was able to gather Rs 1.65 lakh and that I should work for at least six months before quitting," she said adding that she could not take the abuse and hunger anymore.
She claimed that her employers and agent in Kuwait made her sign in four blank papers before she left and strip-searched her before they let her out. "It was humiliating. They factory-reset my phone, so that I do not bring any evidence of abuse. They hit me so hard that nearly a week later I still feel pain and my hands and legs still shiver all the time," she said. Amudhavalli fainted during the interview. She said that she feels too weak to start working again immediately and that her husband cannot work.
There are so many more women who need to be rescued from Kuwait, said Rajeswari, another rescued worker."Nearly 20-30 women were stuffed into a small room and locked up. They would let us out, only if a potential employer wants to see us. We would never be told when we will get picked up," she said. Rajeswari, who was promised that her
sister and she will be allowed to work at the same house together, never heard from her sister after she reached Kuwait in April this year.
"The agents would keep switching the venue where we stayed and I never met my sister," she said adding that she was not allowed to pee for long hours and even if she wanted to go urgently, she would have to rush to the third-floor toilet only. She said she had paid Rs 1.3 lakhs before she was sent back.
There are many women trapped at the agent's office in Kuwait and the Ministry of External Affairs needs to act on this urgently, said M Josephine Amala Valarmathi, the state coordinator of NDWM. "The government says that they neither have the authority to rescue women from their employers nor have the proof to do that. It is a double-edged sword. But Indian citizens continue to be trafficked in Middle-Eastern countries in this legal loophole. The country needs to pass the Immigration Act drafted last year and provide respite for these victims," she said.