Udupi: 42-year-old Jacintha, a native of Karkala was among the many who fall prey to promises of a nice well paying jobs abroad by agents. However, Jacintha who has been stranded in Saudi Arabia since the past 10 months now finally can hope of returning to India.
A widow and mother of three teenaged children she easily fell prey to a Mangaluru agents assurance of getting her a job as a housemaid with a salary of Rs 25,000 a month in Qatar. However after she landed in the Gulf last June she was came to know through a driver that she had arrived Yanbhu in Saudi Arabia, where she was required to work for over 16 hours a day.
While the strenuous working hours took a toll on her health she somehow managed to contact her children in India with the help of some Indian drivers in the town and was able to inform them of her plight. Reportedly she also said that she had been hit on the head once and she suspected that her thumb impressions were taken on some papers without her knowledge while she was unconscious.
The children on knowing her plight sought help through elected representatives, contacted the Indian Embassy in Riyadh. They got information about Human Rights Protection Foundation (HRPF)and met with its president Dr Ravindranath Shanbhag.
HRPF, with the help of Indians working in the Gulf, was able to trace her and raised hopes of her early return to India. HRPF contacted the office of Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj. The Protector General of Emigrants (India) M C Luther and Consul General of Jeddah are in touch with her employer Abdullah Almutairi and also HRPF. Almutairi said he had obtained her services for two years for which he had paid the agent 24,000 Riyals (Rs 5 lakh) and will send her back only if the amount is refunded.
Shanbhag said the prime minister has taken note of Jacintha’s case. “We have just received two tweets from Modi. I am now sure Jacintha will return to India safely,” he said.
