India takes steps to safeguard expats' interest

NEW DELHI: In the backdrop of several incidents of exploitation of Indian workers abroad, Government signed a string of labour and social security agreements with other nations to safeguard the interests of expatriates who remitted $ 27 billion to the country this year.

The agreements were especially for the benefit of the 44 lakh unskilled and semi-skilled Indians who contributed 40 per cent of the money remitted back to the country.

The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) inked labour agreements with Jordan and Qatar where there is a large population of Indian workforce.

Labour MOUs have been signed with UAE, Kuwait and Oman, while negotiations have been completed with Bahrain and Malaysia.

The Ministry is working towards signing Labour Mobility Partnership Agreements with central and eastern European countries and many Asian nations which would help expanding employment market for Indian workers, particularly in the skilled category.

India also signed bilateral social security agreement with Belgium, France and Germany this year.

Transfer of pension in case of relocation to the home country or any third country was one of the major highlights of these agreements.

The Government is in the final stages of negotiations with Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Luxembourg for the social security agreements. Talks are also underway with Sweden, Norway, Hungary and Switzerland. Discussions on this matter were also held with USA and Australia as well.

For more than five lakh Indian workers based in Gulf countries, the ministry established Overseas Workers Resource Centre to disseminate information about migration rules.

A council for Promotion of Overseas Employment a think-tank for overseas employment - was also established by the ministry to facilitate training for expats in language, culture and laws of the countries they are migrating to.

The ministry also provided relief to distraught women who are deserted by NRI grooms by launching a scheme for providing legal assistance to such women. The financial aid to the, was recently increased from $ 1,000 to $ 2,000.

There were talks with countries like UK, US, Australia and New Zealand to impress on them the need to be sensitive to Indian ethos and culture during hearing of a divorce suite.

However, the ministry failed to evoke interest among Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) to invest in the country. More than 3.5 lakh PIO responded to the dual citizenship scheme of the government but they showed little initiative in investing in India.

The Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre, established in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industries, also could not convince PIO to invest in India during the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas held in New Delhi and Singapore.