South Asian Business news and information

Yesterday, I mentioned in my post that "although trade deficit increased significantly in Sri Lanka, the balance of payment is still in favor of the country simply because of remittance of $213 million in January 2006 being sent by the Sri Lankan workers living abroad." What I did not mention is that it is the Sri Lankan women who have a major contribution in it.

According to a report of Colombo Page (Sri Lanka Internet Newspaper), out of  230,963 workers going abroad for employment in 2005, 125,000 were women. Nearly 75% of these women go to the Middle Eastern countries to work as maid servants. Although most of these women come from poor and under-developed rural areas, a literacy rate of 92.3% means that these women have got some education and know some English. Sri Lankan women have established a very good image for themselves in this field.

Life is not very rosy for these women in the Middle East . Sometimes, they fall into the wrong hand and suffer extremely bad condition in their work place. The International Labour Organization (ILO) has raised its concern over trafficking of women from Sri Lanka. Still, for most of the women and their families going to Middle East means escaping from harsh poverty.