Kalpakkam: Pandeeswari’s husband Balamurugan, a welder, left for Kuwait just seven months after their wedding but has not come home for close to a year. Not even to see his new born girl baby Yuvathi.
One in every five houses in the neighbourhood at Vembakkam in Tamil Nadu’s Kancheepuram district, around 100 km from Chennai, has a member who works overseas. The employment crisis in the Gulf – where 70 lakh Indians work – has intermittently rendered many like Balamurugan jobless.
He wouldn’t call during those times, says 24-year-old Pandeeswari. With no money and information from him, it was a nightmare for the young mother who waits for her phone to ring every night. The joint family gives her no privacy even to talk to him. He has a job now and today she’s lucky to catch him on a video call.
Tears rolling down, she says, “I have lots of problems and he does too. So in that limited time we speak, we try to console each other. Later I just cry. What else I can do.”
Not far away, a family reels from tragedy. Kavi Shyamala’s husband Muthuvel Raja, a driver, died a few days ago in Kuwait. He had gone there just a month ago through a local contact who works there but had not found a job, reported NDTV.
All they have seen are pictures of him in coma in a hospital. His body is yet to come. Their three little children don’t have any idea that they wouldn’t see their father again.
The family suspects foul play. The young widow says “I believe they (the local contact) beat him to death. He had no illness. He never fell sick or had even headache.”
Her father-in-law adds, “The government should give her a job so the three little children will get a life. They should also find out the truth.”
Arunodaya Migrant Initiatives, which works among this community, supports them with counselling. J Jayanthi, a coordinator for the group, said, “Both husbands and wives talk to us. We work in such a way to enhance their understanding. We become a bridge between them.”
The stories of Pandeeswari and Kavi Shyamala echo the tales of thousands like them. As their spouses battle difficult working conditions and unemployment, back home they are left to deal with the elements of life.