Migrant workers’ wives prone to violence, abuse, reveals study

KATHMANDU, NOV 29 -

While on one hand, remittance sent by migrant workers is playing an important role in improving the country’s economy, wives of the workers, on the other, are having to face various domestic and social violence at the hands of their in-laws, relatives and the community in the absence of their husbands.

“I was accused of having an extramarital affair with one of my relatives and was kicked out of the house and the village along with my 5-year-old son,” 28-year-old Sunita Giri (name changed) of Khotang said.

Giri’s husband is working in Saudi Arabia for the past five years.

“My family and relatives have spread lies about me, especially with my husband. Now, even my husband doubts my character,” Giri said. “This is total injustice.”

Like Giri, many other wives of migrant workers go through a similar ordeal. Women’s Rehabilitation Centre (Worec-Nepal) had recently conducted a research on the status of migrant workers’ families. The findings say 23.7 percent of the wives of migrant workers face different forms of violence. Among them, 58 percent face domestic violence, 36 percent face social violence and 6 percent face both domestic and social violence, the report said.

Worec also found that most of the women were looked upon suspiciously and verbally and physically tortured by family members and others in the society for just talking and walking with men. It also said that the migrant workers on their return often torture their wives after others give them false information. There have been many cases where after being fed ‘wrong’ information by relatives about their wives, migrant workers have tried to bring home a second wife. Worec investigated incidents with 283 women of seven districts—Morang, Sunsari, Udaypur, Siraha, Dhanusha, Dang and Kailali. Krishna Neupane of National Network for Safe Migration said migrant workers and their family members and also members of the society should be made aware of the consequences that these things may invite.

The Department of Foreign Employment says 354,716 workers went abroad last fiscal.

Posted on: 2011-11-29 08:53