A diplomatic challenge for India

Smita Sharma in New Delhi

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has nearly 3.2 million Indians (as of September 2017) spread across the Kingdom, accounting for the largest population of Indian passport holders out of the country. This is more than half of the six million estimated Indian migrants in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Oman. Almost 70% of the Indians are blue collar workers in Saudi Arabia. Of them, rough estimates suggest, nearly 74,000 are women employed as domestic labourers, nursing aides, doctors and teachers.

Most Indians to Saudi Arabia come from Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra, UP and Punjab. Over the years some of the women domestic helps have brought home tales of ill-treatment and harassment. Last year in June, 29-year-old Dhatchayani Uma Shankar broke her back reportedly after attempting to escape her abusive employers in Dammam (eastern Saudi Arabia) only a month after joining work. Six months prior to this, another Indian maid Kasthuri Munirathinam lost an arm in an alleged bid to flee her employers. The Saudi authorities have refuted these reports.

India authorities claim such cases are only a few, and that there is a good institutional framework of cooperation with the Saudi government on labour and manpower. Since 2013, 1,336 complaints from housemaids were received by the Indian mission, an average of around 250 per year. Government sources say 1,329 maids in distress have been repatriated in the last four years.

“We have built a robust response system over the last two years. We have launched Madad electronic portal to address grievances. Our Twitter accounts are active. We receive email and walk-ins by complainants,” Ahmad Javed, Indian ambassador Ahmad Javed told The Tribune from Riyadh.

The two countries are bound by the 2014 agreement on labor cooperation for domestic service workers recruitment (DSW). Each Indian entering Saudi for work has to register officially with the Saudi labour ministry and the Indian mission. The DSW lays down rules such as working hours, holidays, the living conditions of women domestic helps, among others. All contracts generally have a two-year engagement with the first vacation permitted after the first year, or, after two years of work. The practice of a Saudi or an Indian employer depositing a bank guarantee of $2500 against an Indian recruitment has been dispensed with recently.

The Indian envoy says most complainants are those who came via a third country and are not registered under the official DSW route. These people could well be exploited, may get homesick within days of travel or could be subjected to drastic working hours. The ambassador denies allegations that his team is non-receptive in cases where an abused person is unable to share specifics of a location or escapes to the informal shelter built and operated by the Indian mission.

“Sometimes we cannot trace a call in a foreign country as we are an embassy, not an investigative agency. You have to give at least some location or details so that we can help,” says the Indian envoy.

The Kafala system of Saudi sponsorship — where the sole and complete right of allowing a worker to leave the kingdom is to be granted by the sponsor through an exit visa — remains a huge headache. A maid whose passport has been forcibly withheld by the recruiter can obtain emergency travel documents from the Indian embassy. But without an exit visa from the sponsor, she cannot step out of the kingdom. The maid who earns about 1,500 riyal per month (Rs 26,000) could be asked to pay up at least 15,000 riyal for an exit visa upon premature contract termination to cover investment cost of a sponsor.

The Saudi envoy to India Dr Saud AlSati claims his government has facilitated return of workers even without a sponsor visa (see interview). “The Ministry has established 38 committees throughout the Kingdom to deal with disputes between employers and their employees, including domestic helps. It has established a direct helpline in nine languages and an office dedicated for providing support and protection to the domestic helps,” says Dr AlSati.

The two countries are now working on an online integrated system for consolidated data of complaints registered by employees and workers. Indian authorities also claim that cases of sexual assault against maids are exaggerated by sections in the Indian media. “On basis of complaints we have received, we take the ones on sexual assault or abuse verse seriously, But such cases are too few,” says the Indian ambassador.

Trust, but clarify

• Register under the domestic service workers recruitment (DSW) route. Keep the Indian mission in the loop
• Leave copies of passport and visa with family member
• Keep copies of sponsor contract and agency details with self and at home
• States must increase counselling and awareness at district levels
• Don’t take informal or illegal route to Saudi  Arabia through a third country
• Don’t fall for fraud travel agents
• Don’t sign contract without understanding clauses