London: One of Britain’s largest Indian community organisations held a protest in London’s iconic Piccadilly Circus, highlighting the plight of some of the first generation migrant Indian women in the UK who are abused and exploited by their spouses and let down by the system.
Members of Indian Ladies in UK (ILUK), a 14,000-strong women’s group made up of first generation female migrants from India, braved the December cold and became “homeless” for one night, sleeping rough on the frigid streets of London on December 23.
They wanted to shed light on the plight of scores of women who have been left physically, mentally and emotionally abused and destitute by their spouses.
Among the protesters was a woman from Hyderabad, returned to London in October after a visit to India to find that she had been locked out of her home by her IT executive husband who claimed that he had obtained a divorce through the “triple talaq” system of Islamic divorce.
She was left homeless before she made contact with ILUK who organised help for her.
Another woman from Gujarat whose British-Indian husband took her to India in mid 2016 only to abandon her and kidnap her children and take them to his parent’s home in Madagascar was among the potesters.
Many of the victims often have little knowledge about how to find help in what is, for many, a largely alien country.
