Govt. assures minimum wages to women immigrants to Gulf

New Delhi, Mar 20 (UNI) The government today said local laws in the Gulf countries do not prescribe minimum wages, which are determined by contractual agreements between the employers and the workers.

However, for effective protection and welfare of women immigrants from India, it would try to ensure minimum wages to them since they are in the most vulnerable category, Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi said.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Mr Ravi said the minimum wages are fixed by the Indian Missions abroad in the range of 300-350 dollars per month after taking into account the prevailing market wage in that country.

Replying to another query, the minister said no separate data on skilled or unskilled workers are available with the Missions.

However, the Missions in Saudi Arabia and the UAE have reported that as per rough estimates 80 per cent and 65 per cent of the workers respectively are blue collared ones.

In Qatar, nearly 65 to 70 per cent Indian immigrants are unskilled or semi-skilled workers.

Quoting reports from the Indian Missions in the Gulf countries, Mr Ravi said the largest concentration of Indian workers is in Saudi Arabia with a figure of 1350652, including 35,805 women.

Saudi Arabia is followed by Kuwait with a figure of 511161 workers (including 94661 women), Oman 432000 (35500 women), Qatar 250000 (11,000 women) and Bahrain 233955 (17116 women).

The number of Indian workers in the UAE, both men and women combined, is pegged at 1400000.

UNI SKS YA RK1715