Maid bullied

DT: An Indian maid, who was allegedly abused by her employer, was sent back to him a few hours after she ran away from where she worked yesterday. The reason: the employer said he would make the necessary arrangements to send her home.

Vengida Lakshmi came to Bahrain in November 2008. She came here to support her family — husband and three children — back home in Andhra Pradesh.

She approached the Indian Embassy for help yesterday. She claimed to have been abused and not paid for many months by the Bahraini family she worked for.

Her salary, which was fixed at BD40, was paid to her for the first six months only. After that, the payments stopped.

A year and a half later the employer remitted to her husband’s account in India Rs10,000 (approximately BD85). The employer then made her sign documents stating she had received all her dues.

Following this, the payments stopped again. However, Ms Lakshmi asked her employer to send money back home as her husband was not well at the time. He transferred another Rs10,000.

And, again, Ms Lakshmi was asked to sign papers stating there were no dues pending.

She said she was initially given room in the children’s room for sleeping. However, the children did not like it and bullied her out of the room. They even threw out her belongings forcing her to sleep outside on the stairs of the villa.

Phone calls to her family, which were initially allowed, were stopped when she asked for her salary.

Another maid in the neighbourhood used to lend her 500fils to BD1 at times. She used that to make calls to her family.

Ms Lakshmi said that she finally decided to run away after she learned last week that her eldest son was having some medical complications.

She borrowed money and approached the Indian Embassy to seek help.

The mission contacted her sponsor who promised that he would make arrangements to send her back home.