Indian women get raw deal in Oman

MADURAI: A 30-year-woman from Madurai who was allegedly tortured by her employer in Oman, managed to return home, thanks to the intervention of a voluntary organisation. S. Mekala from Jaihindpuram was admitted at the Government Rajaji Hospital on Friday as she is suffering from mental stress and physical pain. “I am unable to sleep as I recall the suffering I faced at the hands of my employer,” said Mekala showing her hands, which have several burn marks.

The employer, who allegedly purchased her from an agent in Oman, forced Mekala to work nearly 20 hours a day. “If he found me resting for a few minutes, he would brand me with an iron rod,” said Mekala. Mekala decided to work as a domestic in Oman when Babu John, who had worked with her in a papad manufacturing unit, promised a monthly salary of Rs 30,000.

“I paid Rs 60,000 to an agent Abdulla from Kumbakonam,” she said. Enroute to Dubai, “In Delhi, another agent made us to stay in a small room in a hotel for 11 days without proper food, but we are left with no other option,” she said. After she landed in Dubai, local agents took her to their office. “Only then did I realize that the agents ‘sell’ Indian women to employers in Dubai. I saw women forced to sit in an open area and employers taking away a woman of their choice after paying money,” she claimed. Mekala was even shocked to find women, who refused to work in an employer’s house, were “subjected to physical and sexual torture”.

Unable to withstand the torture, Mekala informed her mother over phone who filed a complaint with the district collector and later filed a habeas corpus petition at the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court seeking the rescue of her daughter.