Woman enslaved in Kuwait returns

Mohali

A loaf of bread a day was the price that Soma Devi (name changed) had to pay for weathering physical and mental torture in Kuwait. Soma of Dhariwal in Gurdaspur district was recently rescued from there.

Because of the traumatic experience in Kuwait, she showed no reaction even after seeing her children at the IGI Airport, New Delhi, today.

Accompanied by Secretary, District Legal Services Authority (DLSA), Gurdaspur, Rana Kanwardeep Kaur, she was brought to the office of the Punjab State Legal Services Authority (PSLSA) in Mohali.

The 45-year-old woman had gone to Kuwait to work as a maid on a salary of Rs 30,000 per month to help her husband and children.

Narrating her tale of woes, she said her agent took her to Dubai where they stayed for 15 days. Later, she was sold to a sheikh of Kuwait for 1200 Dinar and was told that her job was to take care of the children in the house.

She added that on reaching Kuwait, the sheikh’s family took away the mobile phone from her. She said whenever she called her family she could talk only for a minute or so and that too in the presence of an interpreter, who would brief the family about her conversation.

Soma said she had to work from 6 am to midnight. She added that the landlady would thrash her even if children would do mistakes.

Rupinderjit Chahal, Member Secretary, PSLSA, said the woman was in a trauma and was not able to speak as to what had happened to her during her 11-month stay in Kuwait.

She added that as per the guidance of Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain, Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and Executive Chairman of PSLSA, a compensation of Rs 1 lakh had been given to the woman under the Punjab Victim Compensation Scheme, 2017, for rehabilitation.

She said a councillor would be appointed to help the woman come out of trauma. She added that the woman underwent a check-up at the civil hospital.