Quality of life!

By John Cheeran
What price for an Indian life?
Sixteen Indian workers were charred to death in a labour camp in Manama, Bahrain on Sunday. Truth will never come out in some cases, still I ask. Who was responsible for those dead workers in Bahrain? It should have been their employers. And, equally, the nation that chose to employ them.
The fire happened in a labour camp maintained by the contractor. My sources inform me that most of these labour camps in the Middle East countries are worse than an average prison in India or elsewhere in the world.
It is no secret that the Middle East nations take advantage of the abject poverty that prevails in the Indian sub-continent. It should not be forgotten that the infrastructure that these nations boast of has come at the cost of many, many Dead Workers XI such as the one in Bahrain.
It is astonishing how these petro-dollar rich nations can only see and admire the skyscrapers that rise in their land and be utterly blind to the inhuman conditions that prevail in labour camps in their own backyard.
Reports of Indian labourers fighting for water in searing heat in labour camps have reached India even from a modern metropolis such as Dubai. Quality of life, indeed!
Most often the administrations in the Middle East regimes shift the blame to the immediate employers and say they have nothing got to do with the welfare of overseas workers. It is highly preposterous that these nations do not bother to work out a uniform and minimum wage clause for manual labourers in their midst.
They preach lofty ideals but let slavery flourish in their backyard.Middle East nations have a hands-free policy towards workers from the Indian sub-continent and other Asian nations. They have convinced the International Labour Organisation (ILO) that these are only temporary workers and do not deserve to be treated any better.
I’m told that an average manual labourer in the Middle East gets Dh 400 (Indian Rs 4800) per month. (Incidentally, an average manual labourer in Kerala, South India, makes Rs 8000 per month).
And in many cases, even that pittance will not be paid regularly. It is no wonder then that Indian labourers rioted in Dubai and elsewhere early this year, protesting against non-payment of salaries and violation of other basic human rights by their employers.
When will such things stop?
Only when Indians prefer to starve at home, and cover their lifeless bodies with dignity.
Maa, thuje salaam!