Singapore’s foreign domestic workers turning to sport to battle weight gain
- Singapore can be a good career move for foreign domestic workers, but its tasty food means bulging waistlines
- In fighting the flab many maids have found a new passion: sport
“I was very skinny since I was young and people used to call me names. But now I eat much better here. My family will be very surprised and happy to see me getting fatter when I return,” she said.
“For women who get jobs with good employers, they generally do eat quite well,” said John Gee, former president of Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), a non-profit organisation which aims to improve the conditions for low-wage migrant workers. “Certainly, some of them have put on weight to the extent that they are worried about it. For them, exercise and trying to keep things in check is important.”
A World Health Organisation report estimates that around three out of 10 people in the Lion City are overweight, the second-highest prevalence in the Association of Southeast-Asian Nations. Obesity rates in the city state have also been broadly rising since 1992, according to a 2017 report by the local health authority.
Most of the domestic workers in Singapore come from neighbouring countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar and Sri Lanka – nations in which many people live below the poverty line.
