One Woman's Quest To Give Migrant Workers A Voice

You wouldn’t work under the rain without proper gear, or tolerate it if your boss didn’t compensate you after an accident. So why should anyone else? But that’s not always the case for migrant workers here, who don’t always have people to look out for them. That’s why Dipa Swaminathan decided to step up to help. This is the story of one woman’s efforts to do everything she can – to make a difference.

- Hoe I Yune

Dipa Swaminathan has the contact numbers of between 20 and 30 migrant workers stored in her mobile phone. That’s because she freely gives out her details to them, and urges them to call her if they run into trouble.

And they do. Dipa has received calls asking for advice about unpaid salaries, injury claims, and even run-ins with the law. When this happens, she contacts employers and writes to authorities to get these workers the help they need.

You could say that Dipa became an advocate for migrant workers by accident. In 2014, while driving her son to tennis practice on a rainy afternoon, she passed a construction site where a group of workers was wearing garbage bags for raincoats. A supervisor stood in a sheltered area some distance away, holding an umbrella. The 46-year-old assistant general counsel for telco Singtel was incensed. “These guys were soaked because the garbage bags did nothing to cover them,” she recalls. She pulled over and spoke to the workers in Tamil, asking them the name of the company they worked for. Then she snapped a picture of them with her mobile phone.

She knew it was a long shot, but she called up the company and threatened to take the photos to the authorities, press, and social media if the workers weren’t given proper wet weather gear. She recalls having the phone slammed down on her. But it seems her message got through. When it poured the next day, Dipa drove back to the same spot, and saw that the workers were kitted out in raincoats, hats and boots. It was a small victory, but it showed her that her voice had made a difference.

SHE DOESN’T JUST TALK, SHE ACTS ON IT