We read about the Indian diplomat in the US who was convicted of torturing her maid by making her work for 16 hrs a day with a salary of $108 per month, seizing her documents, not permitting her to telephone her family, and depriving her of food causing her to lose 28 kilos in three years. The maid was awarded $1.5 million as compensation.
“Damn straight!” you say. This is how justice should work. Open and shut no? Well, you underestimate our Internet folk. The TOI had this gem of a comment by a woman:
They naturally calculated in Indian rupees. And you are not taking into account visa fees, flight expenses and the additionals — cost to the family would be more. Plus she becomes your responsibility in a foreign country. With work, kids and the works already taking up time, one naturally wants to be cautious with this ‘freedom’ aspect.
Oh snap – the freedom aspect. Jeez I didn’t even think of that!
Bhagwad, unfortunately there a lot of Indians here who also don’t believe in the concept of freedom for household help…Many don’t allow their helpers to go down because they might get ‘influenced’ by other helpers…Phones are often banned…These helpers work on an average from 6 am to 11pm with no time off in the middle…As a result, many esp. Filipinos don’t want to work for Indian families…
If that’s the case, I don’t blame Filipinos for not wanting to work for Indians. We seem to have a less than proper respect for other human beings regardless of their economic status, caste, skin color etc…
I am sure it is the vegetarian diet and long term lack of social activities that makes NRIs especially vulnurable to mental illness. Add the cold gloomy weather to it and this is the result.
This is awful. But I’m glad that the justice has been served in this case.
I’m surprised by that comment on the TOI article. I avoid reading the comments section on TOI just to keep myself sane.
Typo..
I’m *not* surprised by that comment on the TOI article.
I often force myself to read the comments. I feel I should be aware of what people are saying no matter how distasteful…:(
I also read these comments sometimes just to see what some people might believe. I sometimes wonder if it is just one or two people changing identities and commenting.
Some perhaps, but there are too many for it to be the work of just a few people. And the writing styles also don’t show the consistency I would expect from such a tactic…
Yeah, I do sometimes feel masochistic and read the comments and desperately hope to see a sliver of reason in the sea of ignorance, unexamined privilege, prejudice and even outright bigotry. I rarely see any logical arguments. I give up and take a long break (like several months) from the comment section because I am seething with anger, frustration and disappointment so much that it ruins my day (or days).
I am glad to know justice worked! And yeah, I agree with Sraboney. To a lot of people ‘freedom’ and ‘household help’ are mutually exclusive terms. They just don’t go together. Sad.
You are awarded and tagged here
http://heyithinkthisway.wordpress.com/2012/02/29/take-a-break-and-pick-a-tag/
I always try to refrain from reading TOI’s comment sections, but nevertheless I always end up reading them, but I have a feeling most of them are trolls. :)