Malayali Carpenter commits suicide in Al Hamra

Bahla: (Oman) One more Gulf Malayali life has ended tragically in the Arabian desserts. Chandrashekhar (45 years) a carpenter was found dead hanging from the ceiling fan of his labour camp on January 12, 2002 at Al Hamra, an interior location in Oman. Chandrashekhar from Vizhinjam, Nellivila Kadakkulam had been working as a carpenter with a construction company for the last 10 years and he died without getting his salary for two years.

According to his friends, the sponsor had to give him between RO 750-RO 9,00 (More than one lakh Indian rupees). Even though he was working for the construction firm, the sponsor or rather his Malayali engineer, one Mr.Thulaseedharan from Punaloor, were not renewing his labour card or paying his salary of RO 60 per month (Indian Rupees 7,500). He was suffering from a number of ailments including Heranya.

According to one of his friends Chandrashekhar was forced to commit suicide because the company did not send him to India for treating 'Hiranya', an inflammation of the male organs. The deceased was undergoing treatment from the local hospital in Ibri and the doctors advised him to go to India for better treatment. However, the company was unwilling to pay his salary, renew the labour card or take any step for his treatment. When he died, Chandrashekhar was an illegal worker without visa or labour card.

In protest, for ten days he was not going to the construction site for work. On January 12, when his friends returned from work at 2 p.m. he was found hanging on his lungi. The labour camp is a small building and the worker used only a small tin to reach up to the ceiling fan for hanging himself, his friends revealed. This could not be verified by our correspondent. Shekhar is survived by his young wife and two children - Arya and Arun. Some sources said that his problem was precipitated by some family problem.

After his death, the Malayali engineer called up his relative in India and informed them about the suicide. He also gave them two options - either the dead body or the pending salary. If the family wants the dead body, the company will spend all his pending salary for meeting the air fare and other expenses associated with dead body transport. If the family is not keen to get the dead body, then the generous Malayali engineer and his Arab sponsor will send some money to the family. Remember that the Indian Air lines and Air India will take the deadbody free of cost. As in many other cases, the poor family opted for the precious foreign exchange earned by the Gulf Malayali and discarded his dead body!

Recently, Saudi Arabia introduced a new labour law which makes it mandatory for the Arab employer to meet all expenses associated with a workers death. It is the sponsor's responsibility to send the worker's deadbody to his relatives in India. Some other Gulf countries are yet to implement such laws (keralamonitor.com)