Rameswaram (Tamil Nadu) [India], May 7 : A resident of Anikurunthan village near Mudukulathur in Ramanathapuram district, who recently returned from Kuwait amid rising tensions in the Gulf region, is now struggling to find steady daily wage employment to support his family.
Kalidas, who had been working as a car park attendant at sports stadiums in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia for the past four years, said he was able to earn enough income to sustain his family during his time abroad.
However, following the escalation of tensions in the Gulf region, including fears of missile strikes and reports of casualties, several Indian workers were evacuated and brought back to India as part of rescue efforts.
Kalidas was among those repatriated, travelling from Kuwait to Mumbai by flight and later returning to his native village via Chennai by train.
Speaking about his ordeal, he said he was left without his salary after returning and is currently using the limited money he had with him to manage daily household expenses.
"Despite struggling for 4 years, I have been working peacefully. Since the war began, there have been many restrictions. There is the sound of bombs all night, the fear that a bomb will fall on us, and there is no hope that we will return home alive. We begged them to send us back to our country somehow. They sent us to India by plane. We reached Mumbai. We returned to our hometown with the money we had in our hands. I was anxious about whether I would come back alive, whether I would see my family. I never thought that I would come back alive. It is like a dream," he said.
He also expressed gratitude to the government for facilitating the evacuation, saying, "First of all, I must thank Prime Minister Modi for saving us alive."
Kalidas added that since returning, he has been struggling to find stable work and is currently dependent on irregular daily wage labour as opportunities in his village remain limited.
"Since I came here, I have no permanent job and have to go to some kind of wage job every day to earn money to support my family. He said that since the land is agricultural, there is no agricultural work and there is limited cotton farming, so he is earning a living by picking cotton," he said.