KOCHI, May 30: It is boom time of a murkier sort for South Asian women in post-war Kuwait. The appallingly tragic dimension, however, isn't apparent until one meets some of the young victims deported in misery. Ajitha (not her real name) returned nine-months pregnant from enforced `sexual labour' in Kuwait. And the tales she and her fellow victims narrate are stark stories written in trauma.

Hailing from one of the Islands here, Ajitha paid Rs 30,000 to a sub-agent who reports to one Abdul Majeed in Kozhikode for a visa to enable her to go to Kuwait for a job in cleaning. There were seven other girls. The promised pay was 150 dinars.

Once the money was handed over, the agent said they would be paid just 25 dinars but that they could earn more doing part-time jobs in houses, which would be permitted. The contract for two years was, however signed for 45 dinars.

Since Ajitha could not afford to lose the Rs 30,000 she had already paid, she signed the agreement and boarded the flight to Kuwait. Her work hours began at 4.30 am and lasted until 3 pm when she would change her uniform and go to work in houses where she earned 30 dinars a month for washing, cleaning and helping out in the kitchen.

She shared her room with 30 girls in a three-tier arrangement. They had to share one bathroom. Sixty girls used one kitchen, with two ovens and a gas cylinder to cook their own meals.

As days progressed into months Ajtha discovered a strange pattern in the arrangement, where the cleaning girls were propositioned by women pimps who arranged trysts with `clients' in flats hired by the hour, paying two to five dinars to the `grass-bachelor' owner who vacated it during the day.

Many men employed in Kuwait admit to the existence of this practice. ``We have come for the money and any additional amount is welcome'' is the general attitude of the girls who volunteer to join the subterranean flesh trade. ``If we were paid properly we wouldn't have gone for this,'' Ajitha argues.

As a result, prostitution has become rampant in Kuwait, especially after the war, when the Government eased regulations to allow people with a salary of Rs 4000 to bring in their wives. Many brought `fake' wives and inducted them into the flesh trade, according to Malayalees who are employed in Kuwait. Subsequently, the authorities raised the income-level in a bid to curb this trend.

The vacuum was quickly filled by the `cleaning agencies' which have proliferated in Kuwait, undertaking cleaning contracts for schools, hospitals, offices, airports.

The agencies are reportedly managed by `masrees' who employ contractors in Kerala, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to hire poor girls. Girls for cleaning jobs are recruited routinely from all over Kerala, as it does not have the low-status image of domestic servants.

Though the Kuwaitees pay for the tickets, the agents force the girls to buy their own, according to Ajitha. ``Senior women, who are on free visas act as pimps and take us to the men. Not only Arabs but even Malayalees approach us. I was seduced by a Malayalee. I could have informed the police but then both of us would have been jailed. I opted to return.'' Ajitha said.

According to her, there is even a network of abortionists. ``I went to an Andhra woman. She has some herb which she had brought from her village. It works for many. It did not work for me,'' Ajitha said, adding that even Malayalee nurses help abort illegitimate foetuses.

Back in Ernakulam she approached a short-stay home where she delivered her child which was given on adoption. ``I had many plans. I had hoped to bring up the child myself,'' Ajitha sighs. Though the law comes down heavily on adultery and prostitution, police in Kuwait apparently rarely enforce them.

Which now has forced the authorities to bring in policemen from Saudi Arabia, who have been carrying out raids and handing down summary punishment, according to Ajitha. It has, however, not helped protect these girls from sexual predators.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.