IT was 2019. Months before a lethal virus snatched away over five lakh lives in the country. These were the deaths that were accounted for by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in official documents. But some like Sankapaka Ramalu, who died in Saudi Arabia where he had gone in search of a job, only live on in their families’ memories. Ramalu’s remains have still not been returned to his wife, Lakshmi and son, Harish, who live in a cramped one-bedroom house in Nagireddipur village in Karimnagar district of Telangana. Harish has his own family of two but little means to support them. “We know he has died…but how will our conscience be clear until we see his remains?” asks Lakshmi, her eyes welling up.
Ramalu was one of the roughly half-a-million people in North Telangana who have been forced to move to different parts of the Gulf, including Riyadh, Dubai, Sharjah, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Muscat and Oman, in the past two decades. For these migrants, moving away from home has often entailed seeking refuge in unsafe work environments, being saddled with heavy loans, and in some cases, even death. Reports compiled by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) estimate that on an average, 15 Indian immigrants die every day in six Gulf countries—Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. MEA data says that 33,988 Indians have died in the Gulf since 2014. Telangana accounts for a large chunk of these deaths. However, successive governments have failed to address the needs of gulf migrants in the region, activists say.
Gulf of Despair
Denne historien er fra May 21, 2024-utgaven av Outlook.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra May 21, 2024-utgaven av Outlook.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Emergency, Stalled
Kangana Ranaut starrer, Emergency, the eagerly awaited biopic of 2024, is yet to find a release date. Bollywood has churned out a slew of biopics in the last decade, most of them formulaic
Political Dangal
After fighting hard for Olympic glory and protesting against sexual violence, Vinesh Phogat has now stepped into a new role: the politician
Contending Nationalisms
The Manipur crisis is a complex, interconnected mess that spills across several borders, national and international
God, Communism and a Women's Gym
Unlike other constituencies in the region, Kulgam stands out as a battleground for ideological conflict. The election results, expected on October 8, could lead to either celebration in the CPI M) camp or the Jamaat-e-Islami camp
The Darkest Hour
Qurban Ali is a senior journalist and son of former freedom fighter and Socialist leader Captain Abbas Ali, who was jailed for 19 months by the Indira Gandhi government during the Emergency.
Chronicle of Authoritarianism Foretold?
Eternal vigilance on the part of citizens is imperative Eternal vigilance on the part of citizens is imperative
Blank Editorials
Despite being under scrutiny during the Emergency, small journals like Himmat Weekly got around censorship by taking calculated risks
To Write or Not to Write
For many journalists, reporting in the volatile decade of the 1970s was both exciting and challenging
Indira, the Nationalist
Indira Gandhi is dead and she cannot defend herself. But that doesn't mean others can't
Blue Star and the Golden Temple
Bhindranwale was able to get away with wrongdoings because in the eyes of the Congress leadership in Delhi, Punjab had a Sikh problem since Independence’