National 5 (Spotlight Weekly)

Working To Support

Although Nepalese women workers in Hong Kong are relatively better off, they face various problems like frauds in the hands of employment agencies

By A CORRESPONDENT

Around 1200-1300 Nepalese women currently work as domestic helpers in Hong Kong. Since Hong Kong has excellent legal protection to migrant workers, most of the Nepalese women working there are doing a good job of supporting not only themselves but also their families back home.

However, the fraudulent practices of a handful of unscrupulous employment agencies ñ both in Nepal and Hong Kong ñ have affected a number of naÔve women.

According to Prem Chandra Rai, coordinator of Hong Kong-based Far East Overseas Nepalese Association (FEONA), there are tremendous challenges as well as opportunities for Nepalese women in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has a population of around 7 million with between 1 to 1.4 million households. "Since most people are busy there, they want to employ domestic helpers. At present, there are only 250,000 domestic helpers in Hong Kong. Therefore, there is a big potential of employing more domestic helpers there," said Rai.

Among the total domestic helpers in Hong Kong, Philippine women constitute the lionís share with 140,000 of them followed by 88,000 of Indonesian, 13000 of Thai and others including Indian, Sri Lankan and Nepalese.

The domestic laws of Hong Kong are very favorable to migrant workers. It has stipulated that an employer has to pay at least HK$ 3270 (around Rs 30,000) per month to a domestic helper. Other incidentals, medical expenses, insurance and facilities are also guaranteed by the law.

"Despite such a convenient legal environment, many Nepalese women are hoodwinked by unscrupulous manpower agents who suck them dry by charging various unnecessary amounts as well as wrongly paying them less than the minimum salary guaranteed by law," said Rai. The FEONA regularly helps out the victims and, on average, it provides legal assistance to 3 to 4 Nepalese women every month.

"Most of the times, Nepalese women have been found to be cheated by taking advantage of their illiteracy or lack of knowledge of their rights. In some cases, these women are compelled to sign various documents so that the agents have watertight case. We mostly help out the women if we think we can pursue the legal course. Once we had succeeded to convince the Labor Court there to impose a fine of HK$ 70,000 to an employer, which was paid to one lady," said Rai. He presented a paper on the situation of Nepalese domestic helpers in Hong Kong at a program jointly organized by Sancharika Samuha and United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) Nepal Field Office.

Apart from cheating by the manpower agencies, Nepalese women also suffer from another handicap. While domestic maids from countries like Philippines and even Sri Lanka come fully trained and prepared to deal with the situation there, most Nepalese women have no idea on what they will be supposed to do and how they are supposed behave in an alien country.

"Many times, we have seen Nepalese ladies being kicked out of their job simply because they could not work. There must be some agencies that provide proper training to the workers before they go overseas for work," said Rai.

According to the 2001 Census report, around 800,000 male are out of the country whereas around 83,000 women are out of the country. A study conducted by UNIFEM showed that at least 34,000 Nepalese women are currently working abroad. The data revealed by the Department for Labor and Employment Promotion, however, states that there are 400,000 male and 300 female working abroad. The low number of women in government data is attributed to the fact that most people do not go through organized government channels.

According to the report by the UNIFEM Nepal Field Office, the contribution of Nepalese women in the total remittance support is as high as 11 percent.

"The contribution by Nepalese women workers to the economy is significant. In the past the issue of migrant women workers only revolved around sexual exploitations, HIV/AIDS and so on. But we need to focus on the rights of women to work overseas and appreciate their contribution," said Bandana Rana, president of Sancharika Samuha.