NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL

Debt woes lead to mental problems

DUBAI - SEP 22: Asian families suffering from steep increases in living costs and stagnant wages are increasingly seeking financial assistance from charitable organisations, with one reporting the number had more than doubled over the past year.

Many such families have also plunged into debt because of pressure to send more money to families in their home countries.

The trend has coincided with an increase in mental-health problems among Asian expatriates, experts say, and is of special concern to officials representing the subcontinental population.

Last week, the bodies of an Indian couple and their 20-month-old daughter were recovered from Dubai Creek. Police are investigating claims that Girish Kumar, 29, killed himself, his wife Shabija and daughter Gaurinanda because of financial problems.

According to the Indian consulate in Dubai, 82 people from the city’s Indian community who killed themselves this year had debt problems. Most of the suicides were by people from the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the consulate said. The embassies of other subcontinental countries do not make such statistics available.

Such is the level of concern that the Indian consulate has set up a part-time counselling hot line (50 734 7676) to help people with depression or who are contemplating suicide.

The Indian consul general, Venu Rajamony, said the Indian community, the UAE and the Indian governments should work together to educate families on what salaries and debt expatriates could expect here.

Mr Rajamony said of the suicides: “It is most unfortunate that something like this has happened. And this is a problem that needs to be collectively addressed to prevent such things from happening.”

Joseph Bobby, co-founder of the Valley of Love charity in Dubai, said the group sees two or three families a day looking for a way out of debt or for help for mental illnesses. In previous years, there would be two or three families a week, he said.

He said many low-income families only wanted to pay off their debts so they could return home.

“People also have long-term financial commitments back home, which they can’t meet because of mounting bills here, so sometimes going home is not an option,” Mr Bobby said.

School and bus fees, utility charges and food bills have all increased in the past year. But salaries have remained the same for many low- to middle-income families.

The main sources of debt, according to Mr Bobby, are bank loans, credit cards and illegal lenders. While banks charge up to 10 per cent for loans, some credit cards demand as much as 30 per cent. Families turning to loan sharks could be forced to pay 78 per cent interest.

“At first we give guidance on how families could manage to stay here on a sound financial footing, but now we ask them ‘can the family survive back home without the father?’ if he was the main bread winner,” Mr Bobby said.

An Indian man and his wife who work as laboratory technicians at a government hospital in Dubai said they had been unable to repay the Dh130,000 (US$35,400) they had borrowed over the past six years.

The debts mounted as the couple took more loans to pay off the initial loans they had incurred, including being defrauded by a neighbour who promised to invest their money in a restaurant. The couple have also taken loans against more than a dozen credit cards from high street banks.

The husband said: “The credit card companies are threatening without any humanity. They are threatening to take away our jobs and put us in jail because when our cheques bounce, it will be considered a criminal offence.

“We were a happy family, now it is very difficult. Now we are struggling to pay for school fees for the children or for groceries.”

The father of three, who earns Dh5,000 a month, and his wife, who earns Dh8,500, have not had salary increases in more than a decade. They are also being charged up to 180 per cent for every Dh1,000 borrowed from individual money lenders.

The couple admitted they had contemplated suicide.

The also said part of their debt arose from financing a relative’s wedding in India, for which they felt responsible.

KV Shamsudheen, the Indian radio host who set up Pravasi Bandhu Welfare Trust to counsel expatriates burdened by debt and remittance, said he had been counselling another family whose debt exceeded Dh130,000.

“The expatriates never inform the real situation to their families back home,” Mr Shamsudheen said.

“When I conducted three awareness classes in Kerala in August for the dependants of expatriate Indians, I asked questions about whether they enquired about the conditions of the life of the bread winner in the Gulf. They replied that they never enquired about whether he has financial resources to look after the family. The families back home are very selfish. They want money only, and that plays a very important role in this situation.”

A number of low-income newcomers arrive already in debt, from paying unscrupulous recruiting agents, he added.

Adding to the burden is a recent ruling in Dubai prohibiting families from living in shared villas. It has meant that many families now live illegally, reside in unsafe conditions elsewhere, or are homeless.

Jobs lure women abroad

UAE - SEP. 22: An increasing number of educated Emirati women are taking jobs abroad, further expanding the UAE’s employment gender gap, a government labour official said.

According to figures from the Ministry of Economy, women in the UAE lag far behind men in terms of economic opportunity and integration into the workforce. One reason is said to be that women seek careers abroad rather than taking jobs at home.

The Government could not cite specific numbers of Emirati women working abroad, but Feddah Lootah, general manager of Tanmia, the National Human Resource Development and Employment Authority, said: “We are seeing a larger number of women staying abroad and taking up jobs there once they complete their education but that only serves to further highlight what Emirati women can achieve. “It means that they have reached a level of excellence, but it leaves the market unbalanced.”

Although Emirati women tend to be better educated than their male counterparts, job opportunities at home are scarce, Ms Lootah said.

“Women tend to study more and attend courses abroad, so staying there they feel it might benefit their careers. Also, we have had a flurry of hiring women for the [Ministry of Foreign Affairs] to take overseas assignments, some high-profile.”

There are about 17,000 unemployed Emiratis, according to Tanmia, despite the availability of nearly 1,600 jobs specifically for Emiratis, up 350 from July. The overwhelming majority of the unemployed are women.

In its 2007 Social and Economic Report, published last week, the Government said the UAE population reached 4.49 million in 2007, up 260,000 from the previous year. The Emirati population is about 900,000. Of the additional population, 68.7 per cent were men. The number of workers reached 3.1 million in 2007, compared with 2.87 million in 2006.

Unappealing working hours and a lack of internships, career counselling, government-subsidised child care and benefits are cited as reasons for the UAE’s low ranking for gender equality from the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Despite having a highly competitive economy, the UAE ranks 105th out of 128 countries in the forum’s 2007 Global Gender Gap Index. However, according to the WEF, the UAE performs relatively well in terms of equal access to health and education resources, and in political participation.

“Government-funded child care and longer maternity leave would decrease the time costs for women associated with joining the labour force,” said Christine Assaad, a research associate at the Dubai School of Government.

Her report, entitled Gender Equality in the United Arab Emirates: A Driver for Increased Competitiveness?, suggests employment should be made more attractive to women through more accommodating work arrangements.

Ms Assaad said incentives would lessen gender bias. “Harmonising these benefits across all sectors would ensure women’s entry and retention in the workforce... while making hiring women more attractive to employers.”

According to Ms Assaad’s report, 39 per cent of women in the UAE are employed, compared with 92 per cent of men. Most of the women are in administrative jobs. Only 25 per cent are in jobs considered professional or technical, and only eight per cent of top managers are women.

“Perhaps most strikingly of all, the average woman earns less than a quarter of the average man: US$32,000 (Dh117,000) a year for men, but only $7,600 for women,” Ms Assaad said.

The report says unless there are changes in labour policies to stimulate the economic inclusion of women, the gender gap will grow. It specifically calls for more accurate and timely information from government agencies.

“A truer picture of gender equality in the UAE will emerge and policy solutions can be more effectively formulated,” Ms Assaad said. Dr May al Dabbagh, a research fellow at the Dubai School of Government and the Dubai Initiative, added, “This is not a problem for the UAE only.”

Most Middle Eastern countries have “a high gender bias that has severe effect on society”, Dr Dabbagh said.

Mariam Saleh, an Emirati who works in London as a customer-care executive at a Soho-based entertainment company, believes she has a better career in Britain.

“There are many Emirati girls who, after they graduated, decided to remain in the UK, as we saw more potential for careers and personal development compared to what is available back home,” said Ms Saleh.

She sees the UAE’s workforce as male-dominated. “The idea of working in a male-only environment is off-putting here. I work with women and interact with people from all backgrounds.”