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Defence Minister Nirmala Sitaraman helps rescue TN women from Saudi

At the 'women's shelter' in the Indian Embassy in Riyadh, Kadambari is tasting the luxury of rest and reassurance for the first time in several mnths.

Chennai: Kadambari (name changed on request) of a little town near Tiruchy is the latest case of an educated young woman lured by offer of a cushy job in Saudi Arabia and 'rescued' from hard labour as housemaid in an Arab's household in Saudi Arabia. She jumped the wall of the employer's house in the early hours of Thursday and managed to reach the Indian Embassy in Riyadh, driving for two hours in a local Indian social worker's car along with his family. She hopes to get past the Saudi emigration with an exit visa and return to her anguished family back home.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitaraman has been closely monitoring the case of Kadambari and four others recently brought to her notice, constantly speaking to the Indian Embassy in Riyadh to devise ways of getting the poor women out of their hell holes without ruffling local officials and their tough laws. "Even on her latest trip to Chennai on Sunday, she discussed these cases with us and assured the victims would be brought back soon", said state BJP secretary K.T.Raghavan.

At the 'women's shelter' in the Indian Embassy in Riyadh, Kadambari is tasting the luxury of rest and reassurance for the first time in several months. "I went through hell, every day and every night since arriving here. My family borrowed to pay a huge sum to the agent who promised I would get a HR position in a shopping mall but I ended up as a housemaid. I must wake up at six in the morning to start slogging. There is no proper food and I hardly slept, living in fear for my life", said Kadambari, speaking on the phone just after the 'rescue' done by a local Indian social worker. She had 'celebrated' her 25th birthday last month sobbing in her pillow through the night.

“I am so relieved now after this escape, done in dramatic filmi style in this car with my rescuer's family also joining to make it appear we are one happy family if someone stops us for checking. While I have managed to escape, finally, I shudder to think how many young women are still slogging as housemaids in inhuman conditions. Our government should rescue them and more importantly, they must act sternly against the unscrupulous agents in Tamil Nadu and the network leaders operating in Mumbai”, she said.

“We rescued Sangeetha and Josephine (real names) last month and put them on the plane back home. They too were of the same age as Kadambari and were cheated by the same agent in Tamil Nadu, known as Anand. He remains at large despite the victims' families lodging complaints with the police” , said Samsudeen Rasheed Khan, the ‘angel rescuer’ in Riyadh.

An electrical engineer hailing from Naripaiyur village near Keelakarai of Ramnad, the 54-year-old Khan has been living in Riyadh for the 26 years and apart from his engineering consultancy work, has been assisting the Indian Mission at Riyadh with voluntary work relating to Indian workers in distress. “Of late, I have been focusing on the problem of housemaids. I have rescued 22 young women in the last one year - victims of unscrupulous agents' greed, official apathy and poverty at home” , Khan told DC in a phone interview.

“There are still a couple of girls in this batch to be rescued. One of them is 1,200 km away and it's going to be tough. We will try. But tell the government back home they must do something to stop this human trafficking, this duping of innocent young women by unscrupulous agents”, pleaded Khan. According to him, Kadambari's woes have not ended, yet. The Indian Mission will present her with papers before the Saudi emigration, which will summon the employer and obtain his consent for her exit visa. “I don't expect him to create any problem because he is in the wrong. The minimum age for Indian housemaids should be 35 as per the Saudi-India agreement, but in all these cases, the women are in their early 20s”, explained Khan.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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