RIYADH, 23 August 2007 — India announced it would impose tighter restrictions on the recruitment of household workers, especially maids, beginning Sept. 1 as part of a new measure to check abuse of its contract workers abroad.
The new regulation, which covers 18 countries including Saudi Arabia, will require a mandatory $400 monthly salary and a security deposit of $2,500 in the form of bank guarantee with the Indian mission.
The new rules would also set a minimum age of 30 and require employers to provide their domestic servants prepaid mobile phones.
“These are the new policy measures announced by the Indian government for the protection and welfare of woman emigrants following an inter-ministerial meeting held in New Delhi recently,” says a copy of circular sent to Gulf missions by Indian government.
Asked about the new measure to protect female workers, P. Balachandran, second secretary responsible for community welfare, refused to comment.
The new measure, according to the circular issued by the Indian Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, will cover maids, butlers, cooks and drivers employed in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Libya, Jordan, Sudan, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Brunei, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. The 18th country is Iraq, and the norm will be enforced as and when India permits citizens to go and work there.
According to a report released by the Indian government, workers, especially women, who go abroad as unskilled workers are terribly vulnerable.
“So we thought it was time to bring in measures to protect them,” Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi was quoted as saying in the report. The ministry also has a slew of other measures designed to protect women household workers from exploitation.
The new measures cover women whose passports are marked ECR (emigration check required). The employer will have to register a copy of the work contract with the Indian mission in the country concerned. The mission will conduct an employer verification process. Only after this, the contract can be attested by the Indian Embassy or mission and sent to the employee in India, said the report.
There are other measures in the pipeline. India is in the process of signing bilateral labor welfare pacts with several countries. Such pacts have already been signed with Kuwait and the UAE. Oman has agreed to follow suit. A similar agreement with Malaysia and an additional protocol with Qatar have also been finalized. There are more than 200,000 Indian women working in the Gulf states.
More than 15,000 Indian women are working as maids in Saudi Arabia, which is negligible compared to the number of housemaids deployed by the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. But a substantial number of Indian women in Saudi Arabia are also employed as doctors, nurses and other professionals. The policy of not allowing emigration by women aged below 30 and of compulsory attestation of employment documents will apply to all women holding ECR passports.
“The Indian government does not want to completely ban the emigration of women workers but rather check it,” said the MOIA in the report. The ministry had also set up a hotline to curb the exploitation of women working abroad. The ministry is also going to introduce compulsory skill certification and pre-departure orientation before issuing emigration clearance to any worker. There are more than 1.6 million Indians living and working in Saudi Arabia.
