Her journey to strange lands

Women have participated alongside men since the earliest days of Indian immigration history. However, their migration to the Gulf countries has been strong since the 1980s. They were mostly employed in the unskilled labour sector to cope with the rising economic inequality. Nurses from the Christian community in Kerala have been migrating to various cities in Europe since the 1960s. Subsequent advances in Kerala’s education sector, which opened up more opportunities for educated men and women in other lands, led to an increase in women’s migration to Europe and the Gulf countries.

Gradually, the participation of women in the diverse sectors of IT, healthcare, education, and business increased significantly. A large section of women who were denied equal justice on many issues including the right to higher education, employment, and freedom of movement are still employed in our country and abroad. These women have amassed self-sufficiency and financial independence by fighting and breaking through the constraints of a patriarchal institutional society. It is now common for women working abroad, especially those working in the healthcare sector, to emigrate with their spouses and family. In many previous studies on the history of immigration, women’s immigration efforts have been marked by a male- centric perspective. Today, the expatriate world is open to educated women who migrate for work and gain employment with their families. They can not only pursue higher studies and earn a living, but also travel to other countries for business opportunities. The modern woman has the strength to respond and fight without compromising on the gender stereotypes that they faced over the years in the workplace, the wage system, or in the hierarchy. Hence, women today do not underestimate their efforts and achievements but progress further with hard work and willpower.

Indian Women today have marked their stance in the Gulf countries and abroad in various fields, as opposed to the traditional practices of being in the shadow of their male companions. Jumbo Group Chairman Vidhya Chhabriya, Aster DM Health Care Deputy Managing Director Alisha Moopen, and World Star Holdings Managing Director Haseena Nishad are some of the leading women in the world who have written distinct success stories.

Many countries have not yet considered domestic work as a separate area of employment. Due to the perception that domestic work is a job reserved exclusively for women, they face violence, exploitation, and human rights violations in this sector. Their lives were turned into hell with deception, and physical and mental abuse from fraud recruiting agencies and employers, without wages, food, or even shelter. A good portion of those who fall into this trap and immigrate illegally are domestic workers.

As per the recommendations of the National Commission for Women, the Government of India has come up with a solution by setting an age limit for women seeking employment abroad who are in the category of those requiring emigration clearance.

In general, these occupations are selected from the most socially, economically, and educationally backward sections of society. In the past, there haven’t been enough discussions about the employment issues, wages, legal protections, and rights faced by domestic workers abroad. Hopefully, Gulf countries such as the UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain have come up with laws protecting the rights of domestic workers. The reality is that many of these workers do not have the knowledge of the law or the awareness to exercise their rights properly.

Expatriate life during COVID

While the COVID - 19 pandemic infected millions of people, the Gulf diaspora was the worst hit. With the advent of the work-from-home system during the COVID era, women expatriates faced many challenges due to professional pressures, domestic work, and domestic violence. The Pandemic period was a trying time for the sick, pregnant women, and those stranded in foreign lands, who lost their jobs and could not return home due to travel restrictions, and those who couldn’t repatriate the bodies of relatives who died abroad. Many were stressed by the possibility of direct exposure to the pandemic from occupations directly related to the outside world, such as healthcare, food supply outlets, and educational institutions.