NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL
Indians here had no vote – but have high hopes
DUBAI - MAY 18: They were unable to vote, but that has not stopped Indians in the UAE from having high expectations of their country’s ruling coalition, led by the Congress Party, which won the month-long general election.
Expatriate Indians called on the alliance, which is expected to rule for a second term headed by the present prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to support those returning home after losing their jobs, and to allow voting for the 25 million Indians based abroad.
“A lot of Non-Resident Indians are putting their money into India,” said Dr Rajah Balakrishna, executive director at DigiFilm Club, based in the Cultural Foundation.
“That’s a thing that he [the prime minister] has to look into. We can only tell our people back home who to vote for, who we like because we have no direct influence. We should have a say in the forming of governments back home.”
Mr Balakrishna added: “The present prime minister, he is a decent, clean person. We feel that he will do much better and this makes him a strong prime minister.
“A lot of youngsters have won in these elections. They should be given a chance to do their best in the governing of the country.”
KV Shamsudheen, chairman of the Pravasi Bandhu Welfare Trust, an organisation working for the welfare of non resident Indians, said the money sent by expatriate Indians should be used in welfare projects and development.
“The new government must utilise a part of the remittance from 25 million non resident Indians for the national infrastructure development,” he said. “Lack of proper infrastructure is the main obstacle for the development of the country.
“If the new government develops friendly relations with neighbouring countries, they can reduce defence spending and transfer that surplus to agriculture development which is the backbone of the economy.”
Indians in the UAE were glued to their television sets on Saturday as the votes were totted up and the results announced.
“This result is what I wanted and what my family voted for,” said Anil Nair, an accountant in Dubai. “I am happy with the result and we hope that this will bring stability and progress for India and its people.”
Mr Nair’s family, along with many others, voted for the Congress-led alliance, which won a majority of the seats in Kerala.
Campaigners in the south Indian state, which has a large expatriate community in the Gulf, promised to raise issues relevant to its community based abroad.
In fact, Shashi Tharoor, a winner from the Congress Party in Kerala was a former resident of Dubai. He won by more than 90,000 votes and part of his campaign promise was to provide relief for newly unemployed Keralites, who returned to India after losing jobs due to the economic crises.
Other prominent Indians in the UAE also welcomed the results, and maintained that a lot is expected from the winners.
Sudhir Kumar Shetty, the India Social Centre’s honorary president, said: “People have voted. The masses have acknowledged who they want to see in power. Their [the new government] policies are forward looking. They will have to make a lot of critical decisions. Like creating an environment to attract private investment, and reforming the judicial and education systems.”
He said with a resounding victory, the government will have a mandate to make decisions.
“This time there is a clear verdict,” he said. “It will help with making far reaching clear decisions and we can look forward to a very effective country.”
Dubai tackles safety on buses
DUBAI - MAY 18: The death of even one child being transported on a bus to school was one too many, the chief of Dubai Police said yesterday.
Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim, speaking at the signing of a safety agreement with Emirates Transport officials, said more should be done to protect children travelling to school and called on everyone involved in education to take responsibility.
“The priority is to ensure the safety of children when they board and exit the school bus,” he said.
“Accidents and deaths of children travelling on school buses may be the result of neglect and lack of awareness on the part of some bus drivers.
“Teachers, parents, and school drivers, public and private transport companies have a key role to play in order to protect our children and students [from] incidents which have proven to be fatal in some cases,” he added.
Lt Gen Tamim suggested that bus drivers could send a text message at the end of their shifts confirming that the bus was empty.
Under the safety agreement, bus drivers will attend lectures at a newly formed traffic institution, and police will raise awareness among children and parents by distributing leaflets in schools.
“Children should also learn the danger areas and be taught how to be vigilant as they step in and out of the bus,” said Lt Gen Tamim.
“They should be taught to queue and walk in line to their seats and off [the bus] to avoid swarming each other, which can put them in a dangerous situation.
“The driver also has to check that the road is clear before letting a child out.”
Mohammed al Jarman, general manager of Emirates Transport, said all public school buses would carry a freephone number – 800 6006 – inviting the public to report any breaches of safety, including “speeding, seeing unseated children or anything that would cause a member of the public concern”.
The Ministry of Education, he said, was determined to introduce escorts on all buses from next year; 1,000 had been recruited already in Abu Dhabi. “The escorts will have the responsibility to ensure that all children are picked up and dropped off from school safely,” Mr al Jarman said.
Tragedy on the school run
Aiman Zeeshanuddin, left, 4, died after being locked inside a school bus on Thursday. The circumstances are almost identical to the death of Aatish Shabin, right, 3, who died in April last year.
By Saturday afternoon there were no more tears left to shed in the Zeeshanuddin household.
In between condolence visits from neighbours and friends, the parents of the child who died in her school bus on Thursday retreated into their own thoughts as they prepared to take their daughter’s body back to Pakistan for burial.
Sobia Zeeshanuddin, three months pregnant with her third child, seemed in denial about the death of her daughter Aiman, speaking of her in the present tense and, according to her husband Sayed, occasionally stepping outside, as if to will her return to their one-bedroom flat in a villa shared with several other Pakistani families in Khalifa City A.
Four-year-old Aiman’s life ended when she was left alone in the private bus that was supposed to drop her at her kindergarten.
According to a doctor at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City who examined her body, she succumbed to heat stroke and dehydration.
Her parents believe she may have fallen asleep and been left alone in the bus.
“She was not on any medication, nothing,” said Mrs Zeeshanuddin. “Why would she just sleep like this on the bus for the first time in her life? It is God; God called her.”
Aiman’s death, just over a year after an almost identical tragedy, exposes dangerous loopholes in regulations designed to protect children travelling to and from schools.
On April 24 last year Aatish Shabin, a three-year-old Indian boy, died after being inadvertently locked in the bus taking him to another kindergarten in Abu Dhabi city.
Both children had been travelling on private buses, hired not by the schools but by their parents and therefore outside the rules that govern the operation of transport owned by schools. But neither school called the parents when their child failed to appear.
Both schools operate under the auspices of the Abu Dhabi Educational Zone (Adez), which after Aatish’s death last year said buses should carry lists of pupils on board to be checked on arrival by a school supervisor.
Mohammad al Dhaheri, the director of Adez, said on Saturday that he and his staff had been very upset to hear of Aiman’s death.
All schools, private and public, were under a directive to employ a “social administrator” whose main responsibility was to liaise with teachers after the first period, obtain a list of any absent students and call their parents to check on their safety.
“Maybe sometimes kids are skipping school and parents are not aware,” said Mr al Dhaheri.
“But in the case of this little poor girl, she’s in kindergarten, she’s too young to be ditching school, of course.”
The head of the school at which Aiman Zeeshanuddin was a pupil said it had now introduced a policy of calling parents when their children failed to arrive, but insisted it had not received official instructions to do this.
“We didn’t get any circular from anywhere,” said Ilyas Nasari, head teacher at the New Indian Model School. As of yesterday, he said, teachers had to raise the alert within 15 minutes of realising that a pupil was absent, and officials would then call the parents to check on the child’s whereabouts.
Mr Nasari said the school had nothing to do with the bus on which Aiman had travelled.
“From Khalifa City, we have only one student coming,” he said. “For that reason, we don’t operate the bus there.
“They’re using their own transport. It’s not school transport. We have no communication with the bus or the driver.”
The school operates eight of its own buses, each of which is crewed by an assistant as well as a driver.
Yesterday a team from Adez was due to visit the Indian Model School in Musaffah to investigate the circumstances of the girl’s death.
What was apparent, however, was that under current regulations children who used independent buses did not have the same protection using buses run by their schools.
“The father used private transportation that may or may not have had a bus monitor to watch out for the kids, or a driver that is not trained properly to check the bus after every shift and to care for the safety of these children,” said Mr al Dhaheri.
If parents chose to use private transport, he said, it was their responsibility to ensure that the driver was taking the necessary safety precautions, such as driving within speed limits and dropping off the children in safe areas.
“Especially for kids this age, parents should never allow them on a bus that has no bus monitor or counsellor or attendant.”
Official school buses, he said, had to adhere to regulations; each vehicle had to carry an adult monitor and the driver was responsible for checking that the bus was empty, before putting up a sign in the rear window to confirm the vehicle had been checked.
“We want parents to be careful about the transportation they are using to get their child to and from school, if parents choose not to go with the transportation that is provided by the school itself.”
But Aiman’s parents, like many others, had no choice but to use private transport; the school bus does not come to their area.
Following advice from a neighbour, Mr Zeeshanuddin arranged for a private bus driver, also from Pakistan, to include Aiman on his morning route.
“This driver takes many kids to different schools,” said Mr Zeeshanuddin. “When he comes to pick up Aiman, already there are 13 kids in the bus, and they all go to different schools in Musaffah.”
Aiman had also had to wait for an hour and a half after school before she could come home again.
“Her school finishes at 11.30 and the driver does not pick up until one because his shift starts at noon. So she does not come home until two.”
It was, he said, “too late in the heat for a little girl”.
Mr Zeeshanuddin said he had tried to collect his daughter whenever he could, but last month he had received a warning note from his employer because of the time he had lost.
“It is difficult, this life,” he said. “Living so far from my daughter’s school causes many problems for us.”
Mr Zeeshanuddin’s brother Irfan, who lives in Musaffah, blamed the “serious accommodation problem in this country” for his niece’s death.
“There is nothing available and nothing that is affordable.
“We are all forced to live here in the middle of the desert and far away from our jobs and the schools of our children. You see, even school buses refuse to come out here.
“This is the main reason why this happened, because of this ridiculous accommodation crisis that made it impossible for my brother’s family to live somewhere decent.”
Back home in Khalifa City, Mrs Zeeshanuddin takes a last look around the family’s room before joining her husband and their remaining child, 11-month-old Areej, for the journey back to Pakistan.
The painfully fresh memories of her daughter are everywhere.
“Look at her scribbles on the wall, she draws everywhere, naughty girl,” she says.
“Look, look, her pink comb, and pink hair clip. She only wants to wear pink.
“She tells me her new name is Cinderella. She is so cute, so cute.”
Pay plan not fair, say cabbies
RAS AL KHAIMAH - MAY 18: Taxi drivers have described a new minimum wage announced yesterday as insufficient.
Under the scheme, which will be introduced by the RAK Transport Authority next month, drivers will be guaranteed a basic monthly salary of Dh500 (US$140) in addition to their commission.
Currently, taxi drivers working for companies earn commission of 10 to 30 per cent of the fares they collect each month. Most take home between Dh1,000 to Dh1,500 per month.
While drivers welcomed the addition of a minimum basic salary to their commission-based wage, most said Dh500 was insufficient.
“We need a guarantee of 30 per cent commission,” said Mohammed, a 27-year-old driver who did want to reveal his last name.
“You know this taxi work is so hard. In one day I work 14 or 15 hours. All month, I have no holiday. My salary comes to only Dh1,000 or Dh1,200.”
“Before my salary was Dh2,000 or Dh3,000,” said another driver, who has worked in RAK for three years.
“In the last month my salary was 1,400. This month my salary was Dh900. It is like this for all drivers now. Tourists are not coming at this time. And now with the economic problems, hotels are empty. Drivers don’t want a salary of Dh500, they want a guaranteed commission of 30 per cent. Next month I think I am going back to my country. I am going to resign.”
Due to the recession, 1,500 people are now leaving Ras al Khaimah each month, according to Dr Hassan al Alkim, the general director of the RAK Department of Economic Development.
With more taxis and fewer customers, those who get a licence struggle to earn a living. Despite this, RAK Transport Authority has said it still plans to introduce 1,600 new taxis to the emirate.
For example, Cars Taxi has continued to recruit new drivers and plans to add 250 new taxis to its fleet of 380 active drivers.
“Maybe there was money before but now it’s like Egypt,” says an Egyptian driver, who took three months to get his licence and has worked for two months.
“People finish their licence but now there’s no work. I make money on commission. No work, no commission. I work 15, 16 hours a day.”
Under the new wage structure, a driver earning Dh4,500 a month would take 10 per cent of that (Dh450) and the Dh500 basic salary, bringing his total to Dh950.
If the driver was earning more, Dh9,000 each month, he would take 30 per cent in commission (Dh2,700) and the Dh500 basic – Dh3,200 in total.
Those who earn less than D4,470 a month (Dh150 a day) would not qualify for the basic salary. Taxi drivers who do not work set hours are also not guaranteed a basic salary.
Meanwhile, TransAD, the taxi regulator in Abu Dhabi, is working on a unified scheme for driver’s wages, commission and accommodation.
At present, companies operate different pay systems based on either commissions or monthly income targets.
However, when drivers compare their salaries and commission schemes, the disparities can lead to unrest and even protests.
Dubai taxi drivers, meanwhile, work on commission and have to make Dh370 every day. At the end of the month workers are paid 35 per cent of what they collect. But drivers say they must pay all expenses – including housing, food and traffic fines – from their own pockets.
Each driver of Dubai’s ladies’ taxis gets a permanent salary of Dh1,000 a month plus a commission of 20 per cent of total income for a 10-hour working shift.
In another bid to help drivers, the RAK Transport Authority has also announced that it will send its own recruitment agents abroad to ensure that contracted drivers for new taxi companies are capable of passing their UAE road test quickly and will adapt well to life overseas.
Last week, a 26-year-old Egyptian driver attempted suicide after failing to get his licence six times and accumulating a debt of Dh7,300 to his taxi company.