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29 March 2024

Eve-teasing: gardeners vs maids in Springs

Housemaids working in and around The Springs area in Dubai claim to be victims of eve-teasing by a number of gardeners. (SUPPLIED)

Published
By Shuchita Kapur

Housemaids working in and around The Springs area in Dubai claim to be victims of eve-teasing, an Indian euphemism for sexual harassment, by a number of gardeners, primarily from the Subcontinent.

Laxami, an Indian housemaid who works part-time in a handful of villas in Springs 11, told this website that she gets to face lewd remarks almost daily while she goes from one work place to the other. “It’s disgusting - they keep saying something or the other,” she complains.

Her sister, who works in the adjoining Meadows area, also claims that "Pakistani gardeners are always around and pass comments" when she is outside. “One day, I was washing the car outside the villa and one of them approached me. He asked me for water and when I refused he said there should be water in the house and we should go inside the villa. I told him to go away and threatened to call security,” she said.

A Sri Lankan housemaid, well in the fifties, too says that the menace has been around for a while now. “At least 50 of them must have come and asked my name,” she shrugs, adding that “the best thing is to ignore them. There is really nothing you can do about it.”

The residential development boasts of one of the greenest living spaces in Dubai, with a lawn in every villa and townhouse in the community besides trees, manicured pathways and parks dotting the entire Emirates Hills area. While the developer, Emaar Properties, is responsible for the maintenance of the shared areas in the community (and is doing a good job of it), some of the part-time gardeners appointed by villa residents to tend to their individual lawns seem to be the problem.

 When this website asked a couple of security personnel in the area, few of them confirmed, on the basis of anonymity, that some gardeners are often seen ogling at housemaids but expressed their inability to do anything about it as there is no written complaint against them.

“They have been given gate pass by the residents and unless the residents complain, we cannot do anything about it,” said one.

On the other hand, it is illegal for housemaids to work part-time, without a proper contract in Dubai and, therefore, instead of lodging an official complaint against the menace, such housemaids continue to live with the daily hassel. “I ignore them, madam,” said Laxami, who is on her husband's sponsorship. “My husband tells me not to answer them and ride my bicycle quickly to the next villa,” she said.

“To hire anybody in the UAE, there should be a contract between the employer and the employee," Major General Mohammed Al Marri, Head of Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department, had told this website earlier.

"The employee must also be under the sponsorship of the employer. This is necessary to protect the rights of both parties. Those who hire baby sitters for part time without any legal contract or right are violating the laws and committing a crime. Many of them are not aware that hiring babysitters or any other servant is illegal,” he said.

“We call nationals and expatriates residents in the UAE to avoid hiring part-time employees as babysitters or housemaids. This is a serious issue. It is very complicated, and it can put them in serious trouble,” he warned.