The Bahraini-based Migrant Workers Protection Society (MWPS), has recently highlighted the case of Lakshmi Surampudi, an Indian woman who came to work as a maid in Bahrain in 2005. Three months ago, after nearly four years of abuse, Surampudi fled her sponsor and was found extremely malnourished and almost blind (suffering from glaucoma). According to Surampudi, she was forced to sleep on a towel on the floor, and was "regularly hit, kicked, stamped on, poked in the eye with a key and dragged by her hair or ears by her sponsor's ex-wife", Gulf Daily News reported - Opens in new tabtoday. After ten months of work, she stopped receiving her monthly salary of 40 Bahraini dinars (a little over $100).
MWPS brought a lawsuit against the sponsor for the unpaid wages, and were able to compel him to hand over all her salaries. However, the Bahraini police still hasn't brought any criminal charges against the sponsor or his ex-wife for physically abusing their maid. According to MWPS, the maid has provided a testimony to the police and all matters from their side have been completed, but the case is yet to be handed over to the Court. Recently Surampudi has been getting healthier under the care of MWPS and she will soon fly back to India to reunite with her husband and two sons.