kdsingh80 Posted September 26, 2011 Report Share Posted September 26, 2011 Forty-year-old Sukhdev Singh made a decent amount of money working in his pharmacy in his village in Punjab. Sukhdev hails from Khassa Village near Jalandhar. After being lured by dubious travel agents, he put everything at stake for better monetary opportunities in Iraq. Today, his family says he is being forced to clear bomb-shells and ammunition from barren lands in war-ravaged Iraq. Sukhdev does not have a Bachelor of Pharmacy degree or even a diploma. He assisted a pharmacist for about three years in Jalandhar, when he decided he knew enough to open his own shop in his village. "About five years ago, my husband opened a pharmacy here. He could read prescriptions and knew enough to give out medicines. He earned about Rs 6,000 to 7,000 here. Then one day in January this year, he met with a person in the village, who told him he knew a travel agent based in Chandigarh who could send him to Iraq to earn Rs 27,000 a month," says his wife Jaswinder Kaur. Sukhdev jumped at the 'opportunity' and mortgaged his house and shop to raise the Rs 1,80,000 demanded by the travel agent. Today, he is stuck in an isolated field, clearing bomb-shells and doing 16-18 hour shifts of forced labour. "When he can call, he always cries saying that they do not even get decent food. He has not been paid in months despite the labour. I have not received even one rupee since he went away," Kaur says. Sukhdev's story is one of many Punjabi youths stuck in Iraq today. The plight of about 40 men like Sukhdev came to the fore, after their families put in a police complaint in July this year. Some families also approached the ministry of external affairs saying that these boys were duped by travel agents based in Punjab, who allegedly sold them to private contractors in Al Najaf for $ 500 each. http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-i-have-mortgaged-everything-i-own-for-his-freedom/20110926.htm 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SURYADEV Posted September 26, 2011 Report Share Posted September 26, 2011 Somehow I just cannot muster any sympathy for these people, as much as I try! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdsingh80 Posted September 26, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 26, 2011 Somehow I just cannot muster any sympathy for these people, as much as I try! But why? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SURYADEV Posted September 26, 2011 Report Share Posted September 26, 2011 I dont know man! How many times do we hear the same type of stories again and again and again? One just gets rather blasé - thats both me the reader AND the people in India who think that it just wont happen to them . Is greed really so powerful in Pb? They just hear of these 'opportunities' and seem to loose all common sense. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdsingh80 Posted September 26, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 26, 2011 (edited) I dont know man! How many times do we hear the same type of stories again and again and again? One just gets rather blasé - thats both me the reader AND the people in India who think that it just wont happen to them . Is greed really so powerful in Pb? They just hear of these 'opportunities' and seem to loose all common sense. It is not greed.Living on 6000-7000 rupees is really difficult in the inflationary economy of India.The worst problem is once you are above 30 in India and you don't have education and work experiance then practically you are finished .You don't have much choice left. Also we only read cases when someone is in trouble what if he knew some people who went outside India and came back with good amount of money? their stories never got published but circulated through one person to another Edited September 26, 2011 by kdsingh80 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaikaara Posted September 26, 2011 Report Share Posted September 26, 2011 of what i know the agents in punjab are greedy sharks as contrary to their counterpart in gujarat, the gujarat agents are a decent lot , they dont dupe this much. i had an acqiantance in gujarat , the guy use to work in a saloon and was a barber by profession..he paid 18 lakhs to go to USA and is earning well there , has a citizen ship now.he has paid off his agent who doesnt charge all the amount in one go. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdsingh80 Posted September 27, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 27, 2011 (edited) My brother is in Korea these days and today we chatting.He told me that for Indian food and laundry of Indian employees his company have employed an Indian woman.This woman don't don't even know english but now has learnt some korean.She is paid 2500 $ per month along with food and room.and guess what she has just resigned from the job ,may be she got better offer.In other words she is getting 1,25000 rupees per month so even spending 20-30 thousand their she can easily send 1 lakh rupees per month to her home ,the pay what even a very qualified software engineer get to struggle in India.Now is it any wonder that their is so much craze of going outside India Edited September 27, 2011 by kdsingh80 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Singh Posted September 27, 2011 Report Share Posted September 27, 2011 (edited) I kinda of agree with the first guy, it is hard to feel sorry for him, there are people in our community in much worse positions, even some of us have to struggle much more to make ends meat even on other factors such as social factors with our own peers rather then financial some of the satisfaction of earning is removed from social angles. World crisis is everywhere, punjab is pretty much dead now- nothing is left we lost our land what is was is now occupied by the same evil hindus and muslims which were around in guru nanaks time it seems we achieved nothing in our religion much. Even after preaching and doing things against the corruption, the corruption won. We can only reflect and say what golden periods came were nice and hopefully someone somewhere will draw inspiration and try and bring heaven to earth through that. We can only try and impove ourselves and family and one day gain the status we had in the past. They are humans and have to do what it takes to survive. As for the compassion the west shows, Islam has probably killed it totally. For those who got the compassion perhaps it is there duty to help out, for all those who migrated there generations have become selfish people who can not co-operate to run bigger projects and for those gems who do something they get condemned and hated and are not appreciated or praised in our communities while the selfish are who take over our political circles. Cherish the few you have around you and do everything you can in your power to be "THE BEST" world class in everything you are and do. Make yourself known throughout the world so maybe one day you can do something. Guess what other people are aiming that high, why can't we get there. Edited September 27, 2011 by JatherdarSahib 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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