14 Punjab women still stuck in Oman

Aparna Banerji

Jalandhar, June 11

While 23 Punjabi women have been rescued in recent weeks from what was nothing short of modern slavery in Oman, the nightmare continues for at least 14 others from the state.

Efforts are on to rescue them apart from locating more victims and bring them back. The support of the Indian embassy in Oman and the Ministry of External Affairs has been enlisted for the purpose.

“The project turned out much bigger than we anticipated as there are many other girls who are being located,” said Gurbir Singh Sandhu, CEO of Sun Foundation, which has spearheaded the rescue operations.

The most troubling aspect of the case is that a large number of women agents were luring poor women from their neighbourhoods or villages and even extended family to Oman with the promise of respectable work and good salaries. After FIRs against three women travel agents (two of whom have been arrested) in Jalandhar, the names of least six more have surfaced in the trafficking network. Eight agents have been booked in Hoshiarpur and six of them are women. With this, the total number of women agents booked has gone up to nine. Only two of them have been arrested, while the two men booked are also at large. At least two of these women agents live abroad, and their families here were part of the effort to lure vulnerable women to the Gulf.

Their greed knew no bounds, and some of them sent their own relatives to the Gulf region. “For just Rs 10,000, women agents sent their own relatives abroad for seedy jobs,” said Jalandhar SP Manjit Kaur, the nodal officer for the Jalandhar district cases. She said the women who had been sent to the Gulf region by their own relatives have not turned up to complain.

The agents booked include Hoshiarpur residents Usha Rani of Shergarh (currently in Dubai); her mother Geeta Rani and brother Ballu (living in Shergarh); Navjot Kaur from Mukhliana (residing in Oman), her mother Ninder Kaur and brother Ravi Kumar; and Raman from Phuglana (Mehtiana). A woman agent from Ferozepur, Dimple, has also been booked. Two of the eight are abroad, but the other six too have managed to evade arrest.

Even as some women were being exploited abroad, their families back home were being pressured by the families of the agents to pay them pending dues. Satinder Kaur (name changed), who was lured to the Gulf by Navjot Kaur, said Navjot had sent her own aunt’s daughter abroad, too.

“Eight people have been booked, and some of them are abroad. They are absconding, but we are on the lookout for them,” said Hoshiarpur SP (Detective) Sarabjit Singh Bahia.