Bindu Giri is barely 19 years old and just finished school but instead of going to college she is headed to Malaysia with dreams of making enough money to buy her own house. "I've heard a lot of negative stories about Nepalis being exploited in Malaysia but I'm quite optimistic," said Giri cheerfully, looking excited at the sight of the Thai International plane at Kathmandu airport. She and 40 other women are part of the first batch of Nepali women traveling to work in Malaysia after the government gave manpower agencies permission to recruit female workers. Wearing uniforms of white caps and pink jackets, they seemed eager to reach the capital Kuala Lumpur and start work. All are supposed to work in a fish-packing company but they still have no idea how much they will earn.
"I think we will do fine. No worries," said Asamaya Nemwang, who is taking the risk despite hearing about how Nepali men have been regularly exploited, underpaid and overworked at Chinese-owned companies in Malaysia. Stories of Nepalis being exploited and tricked by Nepali manpower agencies are nothing new but more and more women job-seekers are willing to pay recruiters to find them work here.
However, Nepali men working in Kuala Lumpur are concerned at news that women are coming here to work. They fear the women will be even more vulnerable to exploitation than themselves and might end up being abused or lured into prostitution.
The Nepali embassy here still has no idea how many female workers have arrived and are on the job since the government gave the green light for female workers in May 2005. "We have not met any Nepali female workers yet," says the embassy's Debilal Kandel.
Until now the government blocked Nepali women from migrating to work because of many incidents of rape and sexual abuse in Gulf countries. In the late 1990s, Kani Sherpa was working as a maid in Kuwait when she was gang-raped and then pushed to her death from a balcony. Authorities there said she committed suicide.
Nepalis who run their own businesses here also worry that the women will be bigger targets for exploitation because they are not as demanding as men. "They might end up in different places than those promised," says shop owner Subash Shrestha, who explained that many female Nepalis end up working as maids because their income in the factories is less than what is promised in their contracts.
Such exploitation "is a risk that every Nepali labourer is putting himself or herself in and they will believe it only when they suffer," says Hari Bahadur Thapa, who has been working in a local plastic factory for the past four years. The reason the Malaysian government prefers Nepali workers is clear: they are the cheapest source of labour.
The highest wage paid to unskilled Nepali workers here is Rs 20,000 monthly but most workers take home barely Rs 7,000-10,000. They spend that money for rent, food and clothing and by the time they return to Nepal, many save barely enough to pay back debts they incurred to come here.
"Our government must have stronger measures to ensure that all job contracts are clear and workers are not exploited," says businessman Bhim Adhikari. Until that happens, many Nepali workers here suggest Nepali women don't come to work in Malaysia, for their own security
