India plans to ban women travelling to be domestic servants.

Indian Minister for Women and Children Renuka Chowdhury has said that the Indian government has decided to impose a ban on women under the age of 30 travelling to Gulf states, parts of Africa and southeast Asia, if they plan to become domestic maids, such is the fear that they will be trafficked into forced prostitution. The plan is due to cover 17 countries and where women are allowed to travel to work as maids it is being considered that they be forced to deposit their passports with the Indian consulate to avoid them being taken by traffickers. As may as 6 million Indians are working in the Gulf states alone.
Although positive action to prevent the plight of domestic workers is to be welcomed, it is important that women are not discriminated against by making migration harder, which may not only reduce their life choices, but perhaps push them into even more dangerous forms of migration.
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