When we talk about the Malayali diaspora in the Gulf, we picture IT professionals, nurses, engineers, and business owners. We do not often enough talk about the women — and they are overwhelmingly women — who work as domestic help in Gulf households.
Their numbers are difficult to estimate precisely because many work on individual sponsorship visas that are less tracked than corporate employment. But by any reasonable estimate, tens of thousands of Malayali women work in domestic roles across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Oman. Their remittances educate children, build homes, and sustain families in Kerala’s rural districts.
The challenges they face are specific and serious. Working alone in a private household means limited access to community, limited visibility to labour inspectors, and limited recourse if working conditions are poor. Language barriers, isolation, and the power imbalance inherent in live-in domestic work create vulnerabilities that institutional frameworks are only slowly addressing.
What is changing: the UAE’s domestic worker law, updated in recent years, now mandates written contracts, daily rest periods, a weekly day off, and end-of-service benefits. Saudi Arabia’s Musaned platform has formalised the recruitment process. These are meaningful improvements, even if enforcement remains uneven.
Community organisations are stepping up. Groups like the Indian Workers Resource Centre in Dubai and various Malayali associations offer helpline services, legal guidance, and social gatherings specifically for domestic workers. These connections matter enormously for women who might otherwise go months without speaking to someone from home.
The next time we celebrate the diaspora’s achievements, let us include the women who work in homes rather than offices. Their contribution to Kerala’s economy and their families’ futures is no less significant for being less visible.