ICC Note:
Unmarried Christian women encounter “double trouble” as a double minority in South Asia. Because of the limited work, most women care for children of wealthier families alongside household tasks such as cleaning. Most nannies live with employer since they work at least six, sometimes seven, days a week and are always on call. While some girls are blessed with good employers, some employers are “not very good.” According to “an Asian man who ministers to Christian workers,” some view themselves as the girls’ owners rather than their employers. “They treat [the girls] like slaves, confiscating their passports when they start working there, making it impossible for them to leave…others beat them up or abuse them sexually.” There are several rumored accounts of nannies being killed. “One nanny I ministered to was repeatedly raped by the three generations of men in the house she worked in – grandfather, father and son – before she could escape to safety.”
03/09/2017 South Asia (World Watch Monitor) – Tens of thousands of young, unmarried women from India, the Philippines and Nepal work for Arab families in countries in the Arabian Peninsula. They take care of the children of rich families and perform different household tasks. Most nannies also live in the same house as their employers; they are expected to work at least six days a week – some seven days – and always to be on call for the family’s needs.
“Not all employers are bad,” says Virat*, an Asian man who ministers to Christian workers in the Arabian Peninsula. He knows some great stories about families being really kind and supportive towards their childcare nannies. Some Arab families, he says, prefer Christian nannies because of their integrity and trustworthiness.
Virat, who asked World Watch Monitor not to use his name, shares how some of these employers allow their nanny to go to church and visit friends.
“Those girls are blessed with employers who are really good,” he says. “Some others are … not very good.”
He says he knows many horrifying stories of those “not very good” Arab families who abuse their young Asian housemaids and nannies.
“Some of them see themselves as owners of these girls and really treat them like slaves, confiscating their passports when they start working there, making it impossible for them to leave,” he says.
Other families don’t feed the girls well, or they let them work hard “like machines”, he adds. “Others beat them up or abuse them sexually.”
He says he has heard accounts of nannies being killed, their bodies even chopped up and made to disappear.
“One nanny I ministered to was repeatedly raped by the three generations of men in the house she worked in – grandfather, father and son – before she could escape to safety,” he says.
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