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The Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs under the chairmanship of veteran parliamentarian Dr Laxmi Narayan Pandey in its 14th report submitted to the Lok Sabha on 19th March and Rajya Sabha on 20th March recommended a slew of measures for the welfare and well-being of NRIs, particularly those vulnerable sections of the diaspora such as women and emigrant workers.
Expressing its concern at the incidents of failed and fraudulent marriages of Indian women with NRIs, the committee recommended that an effective mechanism need to be worked out in order to curb the menace of fraudulent marriages including compulsory registration of marriages and amendment to the Indian Marriages Acts, which may provide for, among other things, the jurisdiction of divorce proceedings to be instituted only in the courts in whose jurisdiction the marriages was solemnised or registered.
The committee also recommended that the prospective bridegroom should be made to give an affidavit to the effect that he is not married, and that the affidavit must be notarized by the respective consulate or embassy.
The committee further recommended that the government should set up gender cells/legal cells to provide legal aid and counseling to victims of fraudulent marriages. It noted that in many countries there is provision under which the courts offer the services of attorneys free of charge and there are also social organisations, which provide free legal aid counseling to Indian women. The committee urged the Ministry of External Affairs to prepare lists of such attorneys and other organisations who would be ready to work pro bona and put up the list on the website of the ministry and Indian missions so that victims of fraudulent marriages may approach them for free legal aid.
The committee recommended that the ministry should focus on the need to safeguard the interests of the Indian workers abroad, by entering into bilateral agreements with countries where there are substantial number of Indian workers.
The committee appreciated that a beginning has since been made by the MEA for entering into bilateral agreements with Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Malaysia. It desired that discussion and negotiation for bilateral agreement with these countries be expedited to ensure that the worker's interests are protected and they are no longer exploited by the unscrupulous agents in India and by their employees abroad.
Considering that the overseas Indian workers are estimated at about 4-5 million and their remittances into India are about $12-15 billion annually and that most of them belong to the unskilled and semi-skilled category, the committee also recommended that the skill upgradation and pre-departures training programme proposed by the government must keep in view the changing nature of manpower requirement of countries around the world through the Indian missions.
Taking note of the large scale exploitation and harassment of prospective emigrants by spurious recruiting agents the committee recommended that the Emigration Act 1983 be amended expeditiously by inserting provisions so that deterrent punishment is inflicted on spurious recruitment agents. It is hoped that these recommendations would produce desired results for the benefit of overseas
Indians.
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