ONGOLE: Carried away by the promise of a decent job overseas by a body shopping firm, a 34-year-old married woman had left for Saudi Arabia to work as housemaid three months ago.
But the woman hailing from the remote Bodavada village, near Chimakurthy, was forced to return shattered unable to put up with the alleged physical and mental torture her employer meted out to her in Najran in Saudi Arabia.
On a complaint from her relatives in Prakasam district, the Human Rights Council of India South India President Sk. Khalifa Thula Basha took up her case with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and the Indian embassy officials in Saudi Arabia and helped her reunite with her parents.
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“I was promised free travel and fixed working hours by the body shopping firm in Saudi Arabia. But on going there, I was made to work day and night but for four hours of rest between 2.00 am to 6.00 am each day,” complained the woman who had parted ways with her husband three years ago. She decided to work abroad to give a good education to her two sons aged six and eight, whom she had left with her parents in Bodavada.
She was given stale food and beaten up if she refused to work for 20 hours a day, claimed the woman who was shocked when the body shopping firm had demanded ₹1 lakh if she broke the contract to work for two years there.
The firm had also taken away in advance her three months salary of ₹60,000 (3,000 Saudi Riyals) without her knowledge, she claimed, adding that her travel documents including her passport had been forcibly taken away from her on reaching Najran. The condition of seven other women, whose family members had approached the HRC, was no different, said Mr. Basha, adding that efforts were on to establish contact with them and bring them back to India. Those needing assistance could call toll-free 18002000595 or 9705975099.
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Moved by the plight of hapless women subjected to mental and physical torture, the HRC had decided to appoint its representative in that country to liaison with officials there, said its National President Haji Shaik. The HRC would give a helping hand to women who want to return to India, he said.