Story of S’porean Woman Who Helped Migrant Worker When He Tried to Take His Life Goes Viral Again

By
Rae Woo
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Migrant workers, who come all the way here for a chance at better working prospects, oftentimes face many struggles that we may be oblivious to.

This was further highlighted in recent months when the community saw widespread COVID-19 cases among them due to poor living conditions, and the amount of unnatural migrant worker deaths reported.

Even just the littlest bit of kindness can go a long way, like this woman, amongst countless others, has shown.

Story Of Woman Helping Migrant Worker Goes Viral Again

Ms Dipa Swaminathan, a Singaporean woman, found that her simple act of kindness one day would eventually lead her to be able to help so many more migrant workers whose struggles remain in the dark.

Although her story was first posted on Facebook back in 2015, people have since started to rediscover her kind deed and spread it on the Internet once again.

It all started on a fateful rainy day, when Ms Dipa was driving home and passed by two Indian migrant workers hiding under a thin plastic sheet to shield themselves from the thunderstorm, but ended up soaked anyway.

She decided to take them back to her home, providing them with a fresh change of clothes, some food, and a cup of coffee.

Touched by her gesture, the migrant workers opened up about their situation to her.

They told her that their employer didn’t pay them often, and would dock $50 off their monthly pay of a mere $600 every time they were doing things “even a little bit slowly”.

One of the men, Mr Murugan, was under a huge amount of stress as he had borrowed $8000 from loan sharks to pay his agency for helping him get the job, and his family was being harassed to pay the hefty sum back.

Ms Dipa left her contact number with them in case they needed any more of her help after asking them to confront their employer about it.

There Was A Suicide Attempt

When Ms Dipa received a call from Mr Murugan a few months later, the man explained to her tearfully that he didn’t know what to do as he wasn’t being paid again. She then referred him to the Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) organisation and reassured him that he was in good hands.

Unfortunately, the police called Ms Dipa a few weeks later to inform her that Mr Murugan had been arrested due to attempts to take his own life, and that she was the only contact he had in his phone.

After paying his $2000 bail, Ms Dipa visited him at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) ward where he was being observed as part of standard procedure for suicide cases.

Mr Murugan, who seemed to be in a bad state, confided in Ms Dipa that he felt powerless for failing his family who depended on him and didn’t know what else he could do.

Ms Dipa then informed the police about the heinous deeds that Mr Murugan’s employer had been engaging in, to which they responded by eventually dropping his charges and getting his employer to pay him back the missing wages.

The employer was even surprised that Mr Murugan was able to have a contact in Singapore who could help him – no doubt thinking he would have been able to get away with his hoax easily.

Thankfully, the story ended happily, with Mr Murugan still coming over to see Ms Dipa occasionally and his wife calling her from India every now and then too.

She Started An Initiative

Ms Dipa then founded ItsRainingRaincoats (IRR), a local welfare group. IRR recently took to its Facebook page to laud its founder.

Aiming to improve the lives of migrant workers in Singapore, they organise activities such as trips to landmarks including the Singapore Flyer and hold donation drives for those workers in need.

Despite her story happening years ago, it serves as a timeless reminder for everyone of the power behind such simple gestures that inspire real change.

Feature Image: Facebook (The People of Singapore)

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Rae Woo
Email: [email protected]