How important is the presence of parents to a family? The answer; Essential. The smallest building block of the society needs both its forerunners in order to sustain a healthy unit. However, the present Sri Lankan society has seen a shake out in this unit as most mothers leave the country for foreign employment, an issue which has several consequences, mostly negative, on the children of the family. Mostly the girls, having been deprived of the care and protection of their mother often become the victim of sexual molestation, even from her own father, or may even be forced into hard labor. The boys most of the time get into the use of drugs, show disturbed behavior and ultimately may turn into criminals becoming a threat to the society at large.
The traditional Sri Lankan society that was based around agriculture saw the involvement of both parents of a family in making their income from farming. 1977 introduction of the free trading and the social turn around that took place with it brought about a major change in the lifestyle of the Sri Lankan people in general. Since then, the solution for poverty in most families was to look for foreign employment and this was lead by the rapid increase of female employees going for jobs, particularly in the Middle East. This was the beginning of a reversal from the male-oriented economy to female-oriented one and the society gradually began to depend to a greater extent on the foreign income received from the involvement of the women in Sri Lanka.
At present, the number of people in foreign employment exceeds 1200000 of which the majority is women and the income generated thorough this means has been estimated to be $1.2billion per year. In 1979, 47% of the people engaged in foreign employment were women and 1993 that figure rose up to 72.5%. With 83.5% in 1994 and with 213,000 women going for foreign employment in 2003, it is obvious that the best part of Sri Lankan economy is now influenced by women, breaking their sweat in the harsh terrain for the betterment of their families as well as the country at large. This should be observed in the context that certain neighboring countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have prohibited women leaving for housemaids in foreign countries. Though the big picture is quite soothing, we all have seen and heard the large number of cases where our women had been ill-treated in these countries. Sexual harassments, hard physical labor and default payments have been the most common cases that made the news in the recent past with regards to these female employees. In 2002, 1411 cases were reported on sexual harassments, a number that went up to 1675 in 2004. These were the cases that were reported though there could be many more that were not recorded. In some desperate incidents certain women sort to commit suicide as their last hope for relief and in 2003, 23 incidents were reported in this regard. Additionally, there were 78 death incidents in 2003 due to lack of care in illnesses and this has been the other problem these females had to face in foreign countries.
All the statistics reveal but one evident fact that the lives of most women laboring in foreign lands, especially in the Middle East, seem to go through serious trouble due to varying reasons. The lack of knowledge of the country they are about to leave, the language problem and the limited advice supplied to them by the foreign employment agencies stand up front as the main reasons for the hardships faced by them in carrying out their jobs.
Several measures have been taken by the governments through out these years to ensure the safety of the employees of Sri Lanka working on foreign soil. The establishment of the Foreign Employment Bureau in 1985 has provided “marginally” satisfactory results in relieving the troubles faced by these employees by insuring them and by making necessary arrangements in special cases of violation of human rights. The latest decision by the government to prohibit women who have children under 5 from applying for foreign employment seems to have come with a blessing. The decision has its own merits in that little children will have the affection and protection of their mothers at the time of their life in which it is needed the most. This should assist in reducing the negative issues identified above and should foster a more formal and fault-proof procedure for assigning Sri Lankan women for foreign employment.
3 Comments:
As a Sri Lankan, living and working in the Middle East since 1979, my family and I have raised this issue with almost every single Ambassador who was appointed to serve in KSA with a view to woo the government back home to ban this evil business of sending women to work as maids, but to no apparent avail as the nations seems to need the foreign exchange that the girls send back home each month, badly.
What a preice to pay for the dignity of our improverished yet beautiful women? Sad but true.
To give you a brief synopsis of the saga that this terrible trade spits out, please see the bullets below for your information:-
1. Vacancies for house maids in the ME are not advertised in newspapers like it is done for most other jobs
2. Recruitment agencies employ Middle Men on a commission basis, who have some significant presence and impact on remote villages, to procure the required girls for the available jobs.
3. These Middle Men (MM's) go house to house in their respective villages and woo the parents and siblings of the ladies to send them to the ME for suppposedly "lucrative" employment in the ME region
4. The girls are bundled up by these MM's and shipped to Colombo for the paperwork that is needed to be carried out by the recruiting agent. This is the first point of abuse by the MM's himself who has all the girls under his custody during the tiring train/bus ride from the distant village to Colombo with whatever stops in between in guest houses and motels.
5. Once handed over to the recruitment agent the girls are at the mercy of their staff, mostly men, who are next in line to abuse the girls at their own whims and fancy.
6. The next firing line are the staff working in the various appointed medical centers where the girls havre to undergo a rigorous medical check up and physical where they have to undress completely and thereby expose themselves to the viles of these dubious wolves.
7. Once the paperwork is done and the visas obtained the girls are shipped like cattle to various ME nations. During all of the above events the girls are housed in shabby gehtto type accomodation in various holes in the city.
8. On arrival at the various ME airports the girls are again hounded like animals and kept in enclosed areas within the airport basements for their sponsors to come and get them. Sometimes this takes as long as a week as many sponsors simply dont care to ensure when the girls are picked up and taken to their respective destinantions on time. During this period food and water is absolutely scarce and the girls are virtually starving until they are sent to their places of work.
9. No need for me to elaborate on the sexual and other abuse that the girls suffer at the hands of their employers inside the homes where they work in the ME since this a well known fact that has been documented and reported on by all media across the globe, in no uncertain terms.
10. Many of the girls who suffer such abuse run away from their homes to their respective Embassies in the cities they live, by hailing taxis run by Pakistanis, Afghans and Indians who very often, first, take them to their own residences and apartments and do their thing on them before bringing the girls to their expected destinations. The girls have no choice but to comply in view of the situation they are placed in. The Taxi Drivers are very alert and knowing who is a culpabale candidate for such abuse through sheer experience on the road through time.
11. Most of these ME Embassies have established a villa (or accomodation) to house these girls during which time their cases are handled by the Embassy staff together with their sponsors etc. Another form of abuse now takes place inside these villas by the very Embassy staff to whom they are seeking redress from. There was a particular case in a ME Capital at the Sri Lanka Embassy Villa for housing these girls where the lady in charge of them (Matron) and her husband indulged in peddling them for cash under cover of darkness while they waited the resolution of their cases.
12. On return to their home countries the women are faced with another debacle that is absolutely apalling.
13. Since the girls send remittances to their spouses back home in order to keep the home fires burning and also take care of their kids these macho new rich men (husbands) start flaunting their new found revenue in the villages with their friends dabbling in alcoholic binges, wine women and song, dissolving the hard earned money of their wives overseas. Some even marry other women or keep them as mistresses squandering this hard earned money so easily.
14. In recent times varous surveys in Sri Lanka have shown a massive rise n incest between fathers and daughters whose wives have left them behind for greener pastures in the ME. This again is caused by the consumption of alcohol and the availability of the daughter at home unprotected. Nothing is being done by the authorities to prevent or stop this as it is taking place within the confines of a family home where the law seems to be helpless. Many such daughters have become pregnant by their own fathers.
15. Sri Lanka sends the largest volume of housemaids to the ME and at the lowets cost (as low as USD 11 per month on 3 year contracts)
16. Another aspect of this evil trade is the presence of the "Housemaid Mafia" in most cities and towns where the girls employed in these ME homes band together through direct contact (when families visit one another) and through the means of mobile phones. This Mafia acts as a Godfather to the new entries into the locality grooming them on how and what to do in situations and also acting as a mentor to discuss and resolve their various internal issues. In most cases it is this Mafia that spoils the girls and ruins them teaching them the rules of the game, which lands them in even deeper trouble, under the mistaken assumption that it is for their own benefit and protection.
17. Another ploy hat takes place in this trade is that the girls, in agreement with the Middle Men back home, start complaining about some false health issue or cooked up domestic problem and request to be sent back home after working for 3 to 6 months. Once achieved they contact the same Middle Man again and return to a different home in the ME. This recycling process brings money both to the Middle Man (from the recruting agency) and also the Housemaid (from the Middle Man, who doesnt mind sharing his booty as long as it pours in on a regular basis).
Its a vicious cycle of evil from start to end.
In my view no amount of regulatory controls, rules, regulations, and checks and balances can stem the above from continuing unabated or even getting worse than what it is now.
The only way out is to ban the trade completely since the girls are totally at the mercy of their custodian at any time during the whole epic saga from beginning to end and are also abused by every single one of them at every turn, since men will always be men, wherever on the planet.
Sri Lanka has many social service organizations, WIN (Women in Need), Sarvodaya, ACWBC, etc who should take this issue up seriously with the authorities and stop this filthy trade immediately.
I dont think he Budda would have approved of this at all!
thanx lanka personalities,
sure the situation is getting worse by the day. i see that you have made some interesting observations on this issue. i'll post your comment as a separate post so that others too will get an opportunity to read it.
I'm based in Cyprus so even if not technically classed as the Middle East, in mentality it is more or less so. Unfortunately once the Sri Lankan ladies started to come to the island to work as housemaids, cooks, cleaners, I have to say that the overall view of Sri Lankan people on this island has deteriorated. More often than not you hear of the locals complaining that after an initial blissful year with these helpers, everything started turning sour as the Sri Lankans slowly stole small items of jewellery, money or basically tried to extort money out of their employers. It's a few bad apples spoiling it for everyone else but they're truths. On the other hand I've heard stories from families who adore their maids and are devestated once their visa expires. Basically the story is two fold. Please please don't always just blame it on the host country.
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