The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| US diplomat row overlooks Indian maids’ plight Posted: 20 Dec 2013 11:26 PM PST The mother-of-three works 13 hours a day, six days a week for a family in the suburbs of India's financial capital, taking home 8,000 rupees (RM427) a month — or about RM1.20 an hour. "Life is tough," said Thakur, 39, who moved to the city from Nepal as an uneducated girl to find work. "After daily expenses and paying my children's school and college fees, I can save only around 2,000 rupees. With everything getting costlier every day, it is difficult for people like us." India erupted in fury last week over America's strip-search and arrest of an Indian diplomat accused of underpaying her housekeeper. But the story of the maid herself has received far less attention back home. Domestic service is a prominent feature of life in urban India, with a maid seen as a stamp of middle-class membership. Many of those who can afford it also have drivers, cooks and nannies. Too many hours, too little cash Such workers often start as young women or girls, like Thakur, who travel from rural areas to try to make a living and support their families, but who often end up working too many hours for too little cash, activists say. While New York rigidly enforces laws to ensure even the lowliest employees get no less than $7.25 an hour, such legislation is almost entirely absent for Indian domestic workers. "They need some kind of standardised wage practice in force," said Mumbai social worker Avisha Kulkarni, who campaigns on the issue. There are also frequent reports of domestic servants being abused by their wealthy employers. In November, a New Delhi court ordered an Indian lawmaker and his wife to be held in police custody for allegedly torturing to death a maid at their home. The case came soon after a teenage maid was rescued from another upscale Delhi home by police and social rights campaigners, who said she had been slashed with knives and mauled by dogs. The Global Slavery Index, released in October, found an estimated 13.95 million people in India are victims of forced labour — making up almost half of the world's slave population. Domestic service is a key area of concern. "The central government has completely ignored the conditions of domestic workers," said Anannya Bhattacharjee, executive council member of the New Trade Union Initiative, who is based in northern Haryana state. "It's part of Indian feudal tradition. There's always talk of domestic workers being part of the family but they want to be treated as workers," she said. But there are also signs of change within the industry. While demand remains high, Kulkarni said fewer women were willing to serve as live-in maids for one household, preferring to work at a number of homes and charge per task, such as cleaning utensils or washing clothes. "The standard and cost of living has gone up," Kulkarni said, adding that many maids had high aspirations for their children and wanted them well-educated. "They treat us so rudely" This was the case for Pushpa Khude, another housekeeper in Mumbai, who financed her two children's college education and whose son is now a bank manager. Khude, 45, cleans and cooks in several households and takes home 24,000 rupees (RM1,265) a month — a relatively high sum for her job in India — after starting work at the age of six watering plants for a Bollywood actor. Nowadays she only works for expatriates, with no desire to take on Indian employers. "I'm Indian, but I'm disappointed because other Indians aren't giving us (maids) respect or any responsibility," she said. "They treat us so rudely and they don't trust us or give us holiday." US attorney Preet Bharara, the prosecutor who spearheaded Khobragade's arrest proceedings, wondered why there was little concern in India for the maid and her family. "One wonders why there is so much outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian national accused of perpetrating these acts, but precious little outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian victim and her spouse?" he said in comments earlier this week. Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, points out that millions of mostly women and girls perform "crucial jobs" around the world as domestic helpers, often enabling employers to pursue careers. But she said that in India and elsewhere, they remain "among the most exploited", despite a new international treaty adopted in 2011 to improve their rights. "India should sign the Domestic Workers Convention, encourage domestic workers to organise, and ensure that their complaints of abuse, including sexual abuse, are promptly addressed," Ganguly said. "Quite often domestic workers fear reprisals and don't come forward with their complaints. Proper witness protection systems should be provided." - AFP, December 21, 2013. |
| Syria views Saudi as number one enemy Posted: 20 Dec 2013 05:56 PM PST The oil-rich Gulf monarchies have sided with the opposition from the start of Syria's conflict in March 2011, with Riyadh leading calls for the fall of Assad. Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad told AFP this week that Saudi Arabia was providing unfettered support for "terrorist groups" in Syria, while other nations had reviewed their positions. "I think that all those who supported these terrorist groups have the feeling now that they have made big mistakes," Muqdad said in an interview on Thursday, referring to the rebels seeking to topple Assad. "The only party who is declaring the full support to the terrorist groups, to Al-Qaeda, is Saudi Arabia," he said. Muqdad urged the world to press Saudi Arabia to halt its support for the rebels, to prevent what he said was "another 11 September incident". "I think that if the world wants to avoid another 11 September incident, they must start telling Saudi Arabia 'enough is enough'," he said, referring to Al-Qaeda's 2001 attacks on the US. Earlier this month, Assad's government urged the United Nations to take a stand against Saudi support for Islamist groups whose influence has grown on the battlefield. "We call on the UN Security Council to take the necessary measures to put an end to the unprecedented actions of the Saudi regime, which is supporting takfiri (Sunni extremist) terrorism tied to Al-Qaeda," the foreign ministry said in a message to UN chief Ban Ki-moon. It was the first time the Syrian government has appealed to the international body to take action against Riyadh. "Saudi Arabia is not content to merely send weapons and to finance but also mobilises extremist terrorists and sends them to kill the Syrian people," the Syrian message said. Saudi 'not to stand idle' Saudi-Syrian relations had been tense for years, long before the start of the brutal conflict that has now killed an estimated 126,000 people. The Sunni-ruled kingdom severed diplomatic relations with Damascus following the February 2005 assassination in Beirut of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri who had close ties with Riyadh. Four years later, diplomatic ties resumed and Assad, who belongs to the Alawite Shiite sect, paid an official visit to Riyadh in March 2009. Saudi King Abdullah, who rarely embarks on official visits abroad, reciprocated in October that year and made a landmark visit to Damascus to seal ties. But relations deteriorated from the onset of the Syria war and were finally severed, with Riyadh repeatedly calling for the end of Assad's regime. Saudi officials have simultaneously chided the West for its reluctance to intervene militarily on the side of the armed opposition. On Tuesday, the Saudi ambassador to Britain, Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdul Aziz, published in The New York Times a bluntly worded assessment of the West's policies on Syria and Iran. "We believe that many of the West's policies on both Iran and Syria risk the stability and security of the Middle East," he wrote in the commentary. The senior diplomat said Saudi Arabia has "global responsibilities", both political and economic, and vowed it will continue to support the rebel Free Syrian Army and opposition fighters. "We will act to fulfil these responsibilities, with or without the support of our Western partners," wrote the ambassador. He also acknowledged the threat of Al-Qaeda-linked groups in Syria, arguing however that the best way to counter the rise of extremists among the rebels was to support the "champions of moderation". Muqdad on Thursday told AFP that "Saudi Arabia should be put on the list of countries supporting terrorism." Outside regime circles, there is also growing animosity towards Saudi Arabia. Earlier this month, a film which depicts the Saudi royal family in an unflattering light was screened at the Damascus opera house. "It was important for me to show this movie," said director Najdat Anzour of his "The King of Sands" movie, which opens with Al-Qaeda's 9/11 attacks on the US. "Al-Qaeda didn't come from Mars but from Saudi Arabia, from the Wahhabi, extremist way of thinking," Anzour told AFP. Anzour said a Saudi cleric has issued a fatwa, Islamic decree, authorising his killing. - AFP, December 21, 2013. |
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