Government weighs ending Indian maid services to diplomats in US, Western Europe

NEW DELHI: The Ministry of External Affairs is mulling an option to discontinue the system of domestic helps for officials posted in the US and some West European countries as a last ditch measure to avoid Devyani Khobragade-type incidents.

Another proposal being considered is to provide government contracts to India-based domestic assistants (IBDAs), which would keep them out of the purview of labour laws in countries they are posted. Currently there are 14 IBDAs with Indian diplomats in the USA and 35-40 in Western Europe.

Khobragade, Indian deputy consul in the US, was arrested and strip-searched in the US earlier this month on allegations of visa fraud and under payment to her domestic help Sangeeta Richard. Khobragade was not the first diplomat whose IBDA had created difficulties in search for a green card in the US. Former ambassador Meera Shankar and ex-consul general in New York Prabhu Dayal, too, had faced similar problems.

Officials said discontinuing IBDAs for select countries would be MEA’s last option. They accept that the proposal has a flip side to it. Any woman diplomat with young children when posted either in the US or Western Europe would need a nanny or babysitter from India as hiring them locally would incur a huge cost.

Another option being looked into is providing short-term government contracts to IBDAs. At present they are employed based on verbal or written contract with diplomats. The proposed government contract will make it compulsory to settle all legal disputes in India.

Meanwhile, S Jaishankar, India’s new ambassador to the US, has swung into action immediately after his arrival in Washington on Tuesday to resolve the diplomatic standoff between the two countries. Jaishankar met under secretary for political affairs Wendy Sherman and under secretary for management Patrick F Kennedy to defuse the crisis.