The first officially sanctioned mass movement of women domestic workers from Kerala to Kuwait happened last month. The Non Resident Keralites Affairs (Norka) department, which was all along reluctant to send housemaids to the Middle East citing unfair working conditions, actively sought out aspirants and flew 60 women to Kuwait.
This unprecedented organised supply of unskilled domestic maids to a country in the Persian Gulf has raised a troubling question. Were housemaids a bait for Kuwait to open its doors for Kerala nurses? While Kuwait had a growing demand for cheap domestic labour, Kerala was working overtime to get Kuwait lift the curbs on the recruitment of nurses. Was there an expectation that by exporting cheap female domestic labour from Kerala, Kuwait could be persuaded to allow our nurses in?
This concern was implicit in a research paper on the recruitment of domestic workers for Kuwait by Praveena Kodoth, a professor at Centre for Development Studies in Thiruvananthapuram.
Dignity of labour, late realisation
It is the sudden shift in policy that seems to have set Kodoth thinking. Norka CEO Harikrishnan Namboodiri told Onmanorama that Norka began recruiting housemaids to give dignity to the profession. "We are taking ownership of the process. Also, we are opening up safe opportunities for women," the CEO said.
-sq.jpg.transform/170x160/image.jpg "Medical professionals wanted for Kuwait National Guard, apply to NORKA ROOTS")
Curiously, Norka, formed to redress grievances of non-resident Keralites, was not interested to recruit when it was given a license by the ministry of external affairs in 2011. "Then, too, there was damning evidence to show that clandestine operators illegally took women across the border with no certainty of employment and at grave risk to their safety," Kodoth said.
Housemaids welcome, not nurses
According to Kodoth, Norka had made the right decision but under rather suspicious circumstances. Norka's policy change coincided with Kuwait's aggressive efforts to open up channels for organized recruitment from India. "In September 2017, a high level Indian delegation visited Kuwait for a joint working group meeting at which recruitment of migrant domestic workers from India was slated for discussion. In October 2017, Al Durrah (the recruitment agency approved by Kuwait government) organized a meeting in Mumbai with the six designated state agencies," the CDS researcher said.
Then comes the haste. "Soon after the Mumbai meeting, Al Durrah announced in Kuwait that it had applied for about 2,000 visas for Indian women domestics. But the Indian embassy in Kuwait intervened sharply and blocked it," she said.
It was around the same time, in November 2017, that Kuwait imposed a ban on recruitment of nurses from India. This was the result of a scandal in private recruitment from India; legally recruited nurses from India had found their places taken up by candidates who had got to Kuwait through illegal operatives based in Dubai.
Revolt of the nurses
By then the unfair employment terms suffered by nurses in the state was beginning to create social unrest. In September 2018, when things started turning bad for nurses, Norka had reached out to private hospitals in Kuwait and had signed their first MoU with Royal Hyatt Hospital for recruitment of nurses.
However, with about 15,000 nurses registered with Norka, contracts for 200 or 300 nurses would not have made a difference. "The importance of an agreement with the Kuwait government is that the ministry of health is a major single employer," Kodoth said. Official figures showed that only 125 nurses were recruited to Kuwait from India between March 2015 and November 2017.
While in India, emigration rules were also tightened for unskilled women labourers. Meaning, since 2016, the movement of housemaids has become more restricted than ever before because in 2016 the external affairs ministry had imposed a ban on private recruitment. Ever since only six state-run agencies are permitted to recruit.
"The 2016 MEA order came in the wake of persistent reports of abuse and was interpreted as a means of ending legal recruitment altogether," Kodoth said. This was also why the state-run agencies recruited only a small number of housemaids, that too on the basis of direct individual requests from sponsors. Organised recruitment was unheard of, apparently out of question.
Norka's sudden haste
Of the six authorized agencies, Norka and Overseas Manpower Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (OMCAP) have signed agreements with Al Durra. But Andhra Pradesh, from where the largest number of housemaids migrate to the Gulf, has not initiated recruitment. The Norka CEO said Al Durra functioned under the Kuwait government, and so the women were in safe hands. Kodoth has a counter: "Why did Norka wait till Kuwait devised a solution, whereas in the case of nurses it has been desperately seeking a solution?"
Worst of a bad bargain
Another issue that had perplexed Kodoth was the poor terms Norka had secured for the housemaids. The mandate of Al Durra, which was no secret, was to bring down the cost of domestic labour. And Norka seems to have agreed to the terms set by Al Durra.
The monthly salary offered is 110 Kuwaiti Dinar (between Rs 26,000 to Rs 27,000). Kodoth said other countries have secured a better pay package. "The minimum salary of a housemaid from Philippines is 120 KD," she said. The Norka CEO said he was unaware of the salaries of housemaids from other countries, but virtually conceded that it was a 'take it or leave it' offer. "Al Durrah said they can offer only 110 KD," he told Onmanorama. Kodoth seemed a bit taken aback. "As a negotiator was he not expected to be aware of the wages offered to female domestic workers from other countries," she asked.
Kodoth said Norka had conceded Al Durra's terms without even consulting organisations like Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) that work for the welfare of domestic workers, and had done extensive studies on the migration of working women. SEWA's Sonia George said Norka could have engaged in more intense bargaining with Al Durrah.
"These women who work in large houses in the Gulf are not like other labourers. They work most of the day, and are not granted any leave as they live inside the house. Norka could have at least bargained for a monthly off-salary of 15-20 KD. They could also have secured a health allowance for them," Sonia said.
Heads you win, tails we lose
The need was Kuwait's. There was an increasing shortage of domestic workers. Indonesia banned recruitment to Kuwait in 2010. The Philippines banned recruitment in February 2018 in protest against the murder of a Filipina domestic worker, though it was lifted in May 2018. Sri Lanka had imposed restrictions that narrowed the pool of available women even as the country has sought to alter the gender profile of its migrant workers in recent years by encouraging male migration.
Still, Norka bowed to Kuwait's terms. The Norka CEO, however, denied that a quid pro quo was involved. "Al Durrah has no connection with nurses. Nurses and domestic migrant workers are separate modes of recruitment," he said.
However, Kodoth argued that tacit understanding to send female domestic workers are not unheard of. "Saudi Arabia has resorted to it by asking Indian recruiters to supply female domestic workers in return for contracts for engineers and other workers," Kodoth said.
