Reunited with family, Udupi woman recounts Saudi ordeal

coastaldigest.com news network
September 23, 2017

Mangaluru, Sept 23: For more than a year Jacintha Mendonca lived like a bonded labourer in remote area in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, thinking he would never see his family again.

Jacinta Mendonca with her daughters Velita and Vineetha at the press conference in Udupi on Saturday

The 47-year-old woman from Mudrangady near Karkala in Udupi district, who was dubed by a duped by a recruitment agency and trafficked to Saudi Arabia around 14 months ago, returned home safely on September 22.

Narrating her horror in the Gulf country, Jacintha said that she was allowed to eat the leftover food after working for nearly 20 hours and taking care of her employer’s 28 children.

“My Kafeel (sponsor/employer) has three wives. The first wife has 16 children, second 11 and the third wife, a 28-year-old, had a year-old baby. They all stayed in adjacent mansions and I was the only maid taking care of all them," said Jacintha.

"My day began at 6am. One of the wives used kick me to wake me up. I worked in all three mansions till 2am. Sometimes, the children used to wake me up in the middle of the night. They would pour water on my face or yank my hair, if I took time to wake up. My health started to deteriorate with no sleep and food. I refused to eat the leftover food and survived only on water, biscuit, tea and canned juices. They showed no mercy when I pleaded that I was too ill to work," recalled Jacintha of her ordeal.

Jacintha fled from the house on November 28. To her bad luck, a neighbour on the pretext of directing her to the Indian embassy took her to the police station. Police took her back to her employer.

The worse was to come after Jacintha's attempt to escape. The abuse got brutal now. "Four men beat me up black and blue, slammed my head against the wall. One of them caught my jaw while another pulled my hair from behind. I injured my jaw. They then threw me on the bed. For four days, I couldn't speak a word or swallow. My face was swollen," recalled a shocked Jacintha.

Jacintha never got her salary on time and had to beg for it. They never entertained any calls from her children and saw to it that she never had a cellphone.

Background

It was after the death of her husband last year that Ms. Mendonca, looking for a job, came upon an advertisement for a home nurse for an Indian family in Qatar. She contacted the Mumbai-based recruitment agency which assured her that she would be paid Rs. 25,000 a month.

The agent promised he would arrange for her passport and the visa through his representative in Mangaluru. Ms. Mendonca made her journey to Mumbai and was then taken to Dubai via Goa and Delhi on June 10, 2016, along with two other women. To her horror, on landing, she discovered that she had been taken to Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, instead of Qatar. Her plea to her employer to allow her to return fell on deaf ears. She tried to flee from her employer’s house on November 28, 2016. A neighbour, instead of taking her to the Indian embassy, led her to the police station, and she was returned to her employer. “That night, I was beaten black and blue in the house,” Ms. Mendonca recalled.

Her employer told her that the agents who sent Ms. Mendonca to Saudi Arabia had taken 24,000 Saudi Arabian Riyals from him, and he would allow her to return home only if the entire amount was repaid.

In December 2016, she got lucky. Ms. Mendonca managed to contact her children in Mudrangady with the help of a driver. Her children were advised by the local church to contact the Human Rights Protection Foundation (HRPF). Ravindranath Shanbhag, president of HRPF, said the children had no details, except some phone numbers. In time the HRPF found out that Ms. Mendonca had gone to Saudi on a visiting visa of 90 days.

The visa was arranged by a Delhi-based travel agency, blacklisted by the Ministry of External Affairs. “This led us to suspect that it could be a case of human trafficking,” said Dr. Shanbhag. The HRPF then contacted the Ministry of External Affairs, the Indian embassy, and the NRI Forum in Riyadh. There was every possibility of Ms. Mendonca’s arrest and imprisonment because of the duration of the visa.

But the NRI Forum was able to gather details of the case and negotiated with Ms. Mendonca’s employer to reduce the amount demanded by him. The forum also arranged a work permit for her from the Labour Department, and this facilitated her return home, Dr. Shanbhag said.

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News Network
May 6,2024

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Several women, believed to be victims of Prajwal Revanna, have left their homes in Karnataka's Hassan district over the last ten days, according to media reports.

These departures reportedly come amid fear and stigma after their identities became public due to the circulating video clips showing the women who were allegedly sexually assaulted by Prajwal Revanna.

"The entire district is in H D Revanna’s control. You speak ill about them and chances are high that it will reach them, because the family and the party have a large following," a shopkeeper in Hagare - 20 km from Hassan – was quoted as saying by the news paper. 

Hassan is the bastion of the JD(S) supremo Deve Gowda, and Prajwal, his grandson, is the sitting MP.

The family of the woman whose complaint was the basis of the first FIR against Prajwal has now left their home, the publication reported, citing a neighbour who said, "The woman worked at Revanna’s house as a house help. Some of her videos started to circulate and then, her house was seen locked. We don’t know when she left."

Notably, a former Zilla Panchayat member has also filed a rape case against Prajwal, and in that village many women who worked for the party formerly are now incommunicado, a JD(S) leader told the publication. "We noticed many of the party women deleting their photos with Prajwal on social media. In some instances, men are questioning their wives about their association with the MP. It is shattering the lives of many women in the district," he said.

The local leader added that the former Zilla Panchayat member was there on April 24, but no one had seen the family since the videos came out.

The case is currently being probed by an SIT team and when they reached the Revanna residence, party workers were reportedly heard talking about the women. "I know this woman, she lived close to our residence and was very active in JD(S) activities. Her house is locked… she has small children," one said, as per IE.

Another shopkeeper added, "It was really wrong to reveal the faces of the women. I know some of them, and they have gone into hiding. We don’t know whether they can return."

He noted that it is impossible to survive in Hassan while fighting a case against the Revanna family.

While Prajwal's father, H D Revanna is in SIT custody, a Blue Corner notice has been issued against the sitting MP.

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News Network
May 5,2024

Karwar, May 5: What commenced as a mere exchange of words between spouses swiftly transmuted into a calamitous ordeal, resulting in the heartbreaking loss of their innocent offspring. The heart-wrenching incident unfolded in the serene confines of Halamaddy village in the picturesque expanse of Dandeli, nestled within the idyllic expanse of Uttara Kannada district.

In the throes of a fervent dispute with her spouse, the aggrieved wife, succumbing to an overwhelming surge of emotions, callously propelled their tender six-year-old progeny into the somber depths of a nearby canal, thereafter alerting the local populace to her grievous act.

Promptly apprised of the distressing occurrence by concerned bystanders, the authorities were swiftly summoned to the scene to confront the harrowing aftermath.

Responding to the distress call, the diligent officers of Dandeli rural police swiftly converged upon the site where the innocent child had been cast into the unforgiving waters of the canal, subsequently effecting the retrieval of the child's lifeless form. 

Regrettably, it was discerned that a portion of the child's remains had been tragically claimed by the lurking jaws of a predatory crocodile.

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News Network
May 8,2024

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Mangaluru, May 8: The health officials in Dakshina Kannada are concerned over the increase in dengue cases in the rural areas of the district. They've seen 108 cases since January, compared to 45 last year. 

Dr. Naveen Chandra Kulal, who works on controlling diseases spread by insects, says humidity makes mosquitoes breed more.

People storing water in pots and drums during summer also make more mosquitoes, he added. 

In Lingappayyakadu village near Mulky, a survey found people store lots of water because they don't have regular drinking water. Dr. Kulal says this water becomes a place for mosquitoes to breed if containers aren't closed properly.

Dengue cases are also rising in Bengaluru, Mysuru, and other districts, he said. Even though there haven't been big groups of dengue cases in Dakshina Kannada yet, the health department is trying hard to stop it from spreading. They're doing things like teaching people how to prevent dengue and getting rid of places where mosquitoes can breed.

So far this year, Dakshina Kannada district has only had 16 cases of malaria. Dr. Kulal says many of these cases were among workers who came from other states to work on building sites.

Dr. Thimmaiah HR, who works for the health department, says if people have a fever, they should go to the nearest clinic or hospital. He also says they should get tested if they have symptoms of dengue or malaria and be careful about the hot weather.

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