“As a social worker and a responsible Indian citizen, I have taken an oath to protect the human rights of the migrant workers of our country from injustice in the Gulf and other foreign states.

I had done several odd jobs before my working career at Gulf. When my father’s health was affected, we took him to the nearby government hospital; however, because of the sheer negligence of the doctor, my father was forced to his left teeth instead of the right teeth, and the nerves were damaged and the illness worsened which led to his death. After my father’s demise, the entire burden of the family fell on me I secretly rode a rented rickshaw by borrowing it from my uncle and supported my family with that money. I must thank S.I. Narasing Rao and S. I. Prashanth Reddy who helped me in getting work during my most challenging times. In 1989, I learned Karate and acquired a black belt and certification. That’s when I became a professional karate trainer.

The villages nearby Jagityal such as Dontapur, Tirumallapur, Gollapally, Pegadapally, Gullakota, Dharmaram, Birpur, and Nandi Medaram come under the Red corridor. I used to teach karate to the students and the children of police personnel in nearby areas free of cost. However, certain close encounters with the naxal groups forced me to leave my hometown and go to the Gulf for my survival.

I worked as a driver and painter in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, and Bahrain for over eighteen years. During my tenure there, I practically witnessed the atrocities faced by migrant workers. That’s when I decided to move back to India to work for the rights of migrant workers full-time.

After returning to India in 2004, I decided that no one else should go through what I did. I started the Gulf Returning Members Welfare Society in 2009 to fight the cases of migrant workers. I am currently working to make the lives of Gulf victims better. There are two primary motives for migrating from the Telangana area to the Gulf States. The first is police persecution under the guise of working with Naxals, and the second is to seek job prospects in crop harvesting.

An estimated three hundred thousand young people have relocated to the Gulf countries. A visa that costs only Rs 30,000 is demanded to cost one lakh to two lakh rupees. Not everyone is a recognized agent. Only three agents in the Karimnagar district have official authorization. Nonetheless, it seems that there are over a thousand agencies. According to police records, fifty visa scam agents are operating in the Jagityal district itself. The supervisors provided a list of agents who were defrauding by collecting lakhs and sending them to the Gulf with tourist visas.

In today’s society, where people run a mile at the mention of a dead body, my purpose is not only to bring the bodies of people who lost their lives from Gulf without any fuss but also to arrange a special ambulance to bring them to the homes of the victims in Telangana.

In addition to this, I also fought for the fair compensation act from the respective companies in case of a migrant worker’s death in a workplace accident and, in the case of death due to the negligence of the agent, obtained compensation for the loss from the agent. There are many incidents where the owners were held responsible and compensations were given, apart from the fact that they were sent with fake visas. I worked for the justice of the victims to the attention of the governments and to convince the governments to establish a special department for the Gulf victims.

Despite all these efforts, I still receive threatening calls every day from the agents and other fraudsters for forcing the system to work in the right direction.

But that’s alright. I am not going to give up until the system overpowers the flaws!”

-Dr. Shaik Chand Pasha, Social Worker