IANS

New Delhi, Aug 2: From now on, not just housemaids but also other women with emigration clearance required (ECR) passports will not be allowed to work in countries that don't have a labour welfare pact with India.

"Till now this applied only to housemaids. But from now onwards, all women holding ECR passports will be banned from going for employment to countries which do not sign a bilateral memorandum of understanding (MoU) with India on labour welfare," an official in the ministry of overseas Indian affairs (MOIA) told IANS.

This is expected to come into effect from September itself and is among several new policy decisions taken by MOIA to safeguard the interests of Indian workers abroad.

Earlier these instructions only applied to women going abroad as domestic help or household service workers (HSWs) but now their scope has been widened following increasing reports of abuse and exploitation of Indian women workers abroad.

There are over 200,000 Indian women working as HSWs in the Gulf region itself. The number of Indian housemaids has sharply increased in the last three-four years - from about 5,000 women, mostly from Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, in 2004 to 15,000 in 2005.

India has signed bilateral labour welfare pacts with Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A similar agreement with Malaysia and an additional protocol with Qatar have also been finalised. Bahrain and Oman, two other major Indian labour importing Gulf countries, have also agreed to sign such agreements with India.

The policy of not allowing emigration to women below 30 years and compulsory attestation of employment documents by the Indian mission will now apply to all women holding ECR passport and not just those going as HSWs, according to the MOIA official.

Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi said he was particularly concerned about exploitation of women workers. "We don't want to completely ban the emigration of women workers but actually check it," he said speaking at a function earlier this week where the MOIA signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the International Organization for Migration.

The minister said that in order to curb the exploitation of Indian women workers abroad his ministry had set up a helpline. "Additionally, we are trying to ensure that any woman who works as domestic help (anywhere abroad) should have direct telephone access to the Indian mission in that country," he said.

The MOIA official said that according to the new instructions, anyone going abroad - male or female - to work as HSW should be paid a minimum salary of $400 a month.

"Emigration clearance will not be given to anyone going abroad as domestic help if the salary is below $400 a month," he said. "Additionally, the foreign employer will have to deposit a security of $2,500 before taking any Indian worker as domestic help."

The ministry is also going to introduce compulsory skill certification and pre-departure orientation before issuing emigration clearance to any worker.