Expat Andhra woman’s body still in Jeddah, as poor daughters reluctant to receive it

Kondru Raji (46) of Kadapa district lost her husband long ago and the poverty-stricken woman chose to work in Saudi Arabia with the sole aim of earning some money to arrange weddings of her two daughters.

Jeddah: In a heart-touching story, an Indian woman’s body has been lying in Saudi Arabia as her two daughters are reluctant to receive it due to financial implications. The woman came to the oil-rich Kingdom with the sole aim of earning some money to arrange weddings of her two daughters.

Kondru Raji (46) of Kadapa district lost her husband long ago and the poverty-stricken woman chose to work in Saudi Arabia as a housemaid to earn some money. She was able to perform marriages of her two daughters while working in Al Khobar.But her elder son-in-law divorced his wife and her younger son-in-law went to Kuwait to work as labourer with her help. But he later ended life after returning from Kuwait.

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Meanwhile, Raji was diagnosed with breast cancer and she returned to Kadapa in 2018 for her maiden vacation. She got treated for cancer, after her breast was removed and she was advised to take rest, but she chose to return to Saudi Arabia to continue her job as she had to support the family.

Raji absconded from her sponsor and was working illegally with others for the last few years even as her health deteriorated. She was brought to a hospital in Al Khobar on January 21 and within hours she died due to cardiac arrest.
Since then, her body was lying there in the hospital. A social worker Nass Shoukat, was able to trace her family members in Kadapa with the help of police and Indian Embassy officials in Riyadh.

However, her two daughters were unwilling to receive the mortal remains of their mother, as they were living separately in rented houses. The house owners do not allow any funeral rites on their properties and the two hapless women were also concerned about the huge cost for shifting the body to India. The women maintain that they could not afford even to bring the body from the airport to Kadapa. “If there is any public place in Kadapa where bodies can be kept for sometime, we will help get the body there”, says Nass.

There are often such cases that Indian women mostly illiterate house maids, often widows or divorcees, hailing from Andhra Pradesh remain to stay and work in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries against all odds with only aim to secure a bright future for their children back home in India.

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