The dreams of a 37-year-old Nellore woman to go to the Gulf and earn money to meet the educational needs of her children lie shattered now as she had to return home early following ill-treatment and life threats from her employers in Muscat, capital of Oman.
Sk. Mastanamma, who went to work as a domestic help through Hyderabad-based agents, could hardly stay there for six months. With the intervention of the government and officials, she arrived here on Wednesday.
A resident of NTR Nagar here, she faced a lot of trouble from the agents when she decided to come back. Her husband Rahamatulla, a tailor here, told
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
The women members of the employer’s family frequently threatened her to throw away the devotional book on Shirdi Sai. Their concept was that being a Muslim, Ms. Mastanamma should carry only holy books relating to Islam.
“My wife is an ardent devotee of Shirdi Sai. She argued with her employers there on this matter several times. Soon she started feeling insecure because of the activities in her master’s household,” said Mr. Rahamatulla.
Ms. Mastanamma was particularly scared for her life after she reportedly saw her employers giving what she thought to be slow poison to an ailing old lady in their household. She began to doubt that she was also being drugged.
ADVERTISEMENT
After she made panic calls back home here, her family members contacted the agents who did not initially cooperate but later demanded huge money to get her back. Later, her husband met Municipal Administration Minister P. Narayana and District Collector R. Mutyala Raju seeking help. He also made a request to Deepa Venkat, daughter of Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu.
The Collector took up the matter with the Indian embassy in the Gulf and got Ms. Mastanamma safely back home.