Kin of women working in Kuwait allege torture by employers

Tirupur: Families of two women, who work as housemaids in Kuwait, submitted a petition to collector K S Palanisamy on Monday urging the Centre and the state government to rescue the women who, according to them, were subjected to torture at their workplace.
According to family members, S Vasanthamani and T Rajeswari, both from Uthukuli, went to work in Kuwait on May 2. Vasanthamani’s husband K Selvam and Rajeswari’s husband M Thirumurthy met the collector and handed over the petition. They claimed that their wives were physically and verbally tortured by their employers.
“Vasanthamani and Rajeswari went to Kuwait through a middleman, Selvaraj of Sankarapuram in Kallakurichi district,” Selvam said.
Thirumurthy said the middleman promised that the work would not be difficult. “But the women were forced to work between 7am and 1am next day. They were not given proper food and were beaten up. My wife Rajeswari said she sustained fracture in her hand as the employer had beaten her up. We could not contact them for the last few days,” he said.
Thirumurthy claimed they were threatened by the middleman that if they fail to provide Rs 1.2 lakh each, the women would not be brought back. “We lodged a complaint with the Uthukuli police. We wanted the government to intervene in the issue and rescue the women,” Thirumurthy said.
Selvam also alleged that Selvaraj had promised that the women would be given around Rs 50,000 salaries each but in the last minute, he revealed that they would be given only Rs 28,500 each.