India tackles sex trafficking with maid ban

The move came after Renuka Chowdhury, the minister for women and children, said overseas domestic workers had complained of being pushed into prostitution after their employers had seized their passports.

A ban will be "imposed on granting emigration clearance to women below 30 if they are seeking employment as housemaids," Chowdhury, who recently returned from Kuwait, was quoted by the Times of India as telling parliament.

Some 17 countries will be covered by the ban, which was aimed at halting the trafficking of women for prostitution, the newspaper reported.

Chowdhury said she was considering a move to require overseas domestic workers to deposit their passports with the local Indian embassy or consulate, aping a model used by Singapore for its citizens, according to the report.

Millions of Indians work overseas, particularly in the six oil-rich Gulf Arab countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

As many as six million Indian expatriates send home 20 billion dollars a year from Gulf states.