Now Saudi women may drive thousands of NRI drivers out of the kingdom

coastaldigest.com news network
September 30, 2017

King Salman’s recent decree that grants driving licenses to women in Saudi Arabia may snuff out the livelihoods of tens of thousands of NRI ‘house drivers,’ including those from Karnataka and Kerala. The royal order will officially come into force from Shawwal 10, 1439, corresponding to June 24, 2018.

Even though the international media hailed the decree as a great “social reform”, for the Saudi government, this is mere a continuation of Saudization. When women are at the wheel, it means the majority of Saudi households will no longer need chauffeurs to drive women to shops, workplaces, colleges and schools.

So far women in Saudi had to depend on chauffeurs and taxi drivers. Better-off Saudi households employ permanent house drivers who take homemakers to shopping malls, girl students to universities and schools and working women to their offices. Working women spend a sizeable chunk of their salaries on chauffeurs.

‘House driver visa’ hitherto was one of the easiest and cheapest for the uneducated Gulf job aspirants in India. Though the salary was not very attractive, the main attraction of ‘house driver’ was the free board and lodging, plus, the generous tips from the employer’s household.

There are nearly 14 lakh chauffeurs and taxi drivers in Saudi Arabia. The huge majority of them are from India. At a time when hundreds of Indian workers are returning home every week in the wake of the Saudi government’s nationalisation of the labour force, the new reform will accelerate the job loss of drivers.

Another fallout of the reform is that more and more educated Saudi women will join the white-collar work force, replacing expatriate employees, executives and professionals. There is a large army of highly educated women in Saudi Arabia, where women are better educated than men. Self-driven cars would make their job entry easier. And, as the Saudi women drive into the workplace, a section of the expatriate workers will be driven out.

Comments

Mohan
 - 
Saturday, 30 Sep 2017

Read properly. It means that women get driving license and they can drive alone. Only thats it. It not about they are taking that job instead of current drivers

Yogesh
 - 
Saturday, 30 Sep 2017

LOL... Their husbands wont allow to wear modern dress, Still you people believe that because of them, THOUSANDS OF NRI DRIVERS will be jobless...! Govt allowed but will see how many are ready for this

Unknown
 - 
Saturday, 30 Sep 2017

Total rubbish. NRI's are experts. These ladies cant replace them. 

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News Network
March 5,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 5: Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa on Wednesday admitted in the legislative assembly that corruption was deep-rooted in government offices and held transfer racket as the root cause of the graft menace.

“Unless we root it out from the system, we can never uphold the spirit of the Constitution and ensure equitable justice to people. If legislators lend support (to this cause), then we can weed out this menace,” Yediyurappa said during a special discussion on the Constitution.

Successive governments have been accused by opposition parties of running a transfer racket, but there’s very little done to institute a probe or order a crackdown following the allegations.

The chief minister’s candid admission came after senior Congress MLA HK Patil, quoting a report from Amnesty International, said 63% of people in Karnataka give bribe to get their work done in government offices. The CM said he agreed with the report in toto.

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coastaldigest.com news network
July 10,2020

Mangaluru, Jul 10: A 58-year-old official of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has died due to the coronavirus infection, taking the death toll in the paramilitary force because of the disease to nine, officials said on Friday.

Assistant Sub Inspector K B Premsha, posted in the CISF unit that guards the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), passed away at a local hospital on Thursday, they said.

He was admitted to the hospital on July 5 with fever. His COVID-19 test report arrived on July 7 and it was positive. Premsha breathed his last on Thursday, officials said. He was a resident of Kodagu in Karnataka.

This is the ninth COVID-19 death in the force that has recorded 1,137 cases till now, according to an official data.

Of the total cases reported in the force so far, 410 are under treatment across the country, nine have died and the rest have recovered, officials said.

They said that 20 personnel tested COVID-19 positive on Friday while 22 have recovered over the last 24 hours.

The about 1.62-lakh strong CISF is the national aviation security force guarding 63 airports at present and it is also tasked to guard vital installations in the aerospace and nuclear domain.

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News Network
April 25,2020

Kalaburagi, Apr 25: In order to make people aware about the precautionary steps required to be taken in order to contain the spread of coronavirus, Muslim clerics here are making announcements from mosques after 'Azaan' urging people to follow the government guidelines to keep infection at bay.

Speaking to news agency, Ateeq Ur Rahman Ashrafi, All India Imams Council Karnataka's state president, said, "Under our council, there are around 80 mosques and after Azaan we are spreading awareness about COVID-19. I also appeal to other mosques to make such announcements and follow government guidelines."

This year, due to the spread of the virus, Muslim clerics have requested people to offer prayers inside their homes and avoid any kind of social gathering.

The country is under lockdown till May 3. All religious places including mosques have been closed to stop the transmission of the highly contagious virus.

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