In a short span of three years, nearly 5,000 cases of Indian women who have been deserted by their Non-Resident Indian (NRI) husbands have been registered by India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
Replying to a question asked in the Indian parliament on July 10, Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan said a total of 4,698 complaints were received from women deserted by their NRI spouses by the ministry between January 2016 and May 31, 2019.
It is interesting to note that the number of such cases has been on the decline since 2016. In 2016, 1510 cases were registered with the ministry. The number fell to 1498 in 2017, 1299 in 2018 and 391 (up till May 31) in 2019.
Jasbir Singh Gill, president of the Punjab Chapter of NRI Sabha (promoted and supported by the government of Punjab to look into social matters pertaining to NRIs), told SBS Punjabi that in the last two years, nearly 150 cases were received by them alone.
"We got 147 complaints from women whose husbands deserted them between 2017 and 2019. Apart from this, cases registered with Punjab Police outnumber ours. People are not forthcoming with such information before the marriage takes place."
He outlined the efforts made by NRI Sabha Punjab to prevent such cases, but Mr Gill says he was dismayed by the poor response.
"During an awareness drive to pre-empt such marital discord, we went to 12,500 villages in Punjab and gave the sarpanchs prepaid postcards to distribute amongst the villagers, so that they can send us information about marriage alliances with NRIs. Shockingly, we didn't get a single postcard from anyone. People fear someone will sour the alliance so they don't publicise it and quietly marry their daughters off," he said.
At the federal level, India's External Affairs Minister of State Mr Muraleedharan added, "The government has adopted a multi-pronged approach to give respite to such women. The ministry provides counselling, guidance and information on legal procedures and mechanisms to serve judicial summons to accused NRI husbands."
"Information on filing a judicial case in India, issuing Look Out Circulars, impounding and revocation of Indian passport of the husbands is also provided by the ministry," he said.
"To provide online consular assistance expeditiously to Indian nationals who are in distress abroad, including marital dispute, the MADAD portal was launched in 2015", added Mr Muraleedharan.
In another question asked in parliament by Shiromani Akali Dal MP Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa regarding the disposal of such complaints in the three year period from 2016-19, Mr Muraleedharan said that every single case that was registered with the ministry has been disposed of.
The minister said a module titled ‘Marital Disputes’ was added to the portal to provide a digital platform to distressed Indian nationals married to NRIs.
"To provide financial and legal assistance to distressed women married to NRI men by all missions and posts, the Indian Community Welfare Fund Guidelines were revised in September 2017", he said.
“The amount of legal and financial assistance to distressed Indian women has also been increased to USD 4,000 per case,” the minister added.
“The assistance is released to the empanelled legal counsel of the applicant or Indian community association or women's organisation or NGO concerned to enable it to take steps to assist the woman in documentation and preparatory work for filing the case," Mr Muraleedharan elaborated.
Upon recommendation of an expert committee set up by the government, an Integrated Nodal Agency was constituted, which has so far had 15 sittings and issued eight Look Out Circulars against the erring spouses, according to the MoS.
"It was felt that these measures are not sufficient and the existing laws need to be amended to provide a more effective solution to the problem", he added.
"Therefore, a bill titled The Registration of Marriage of Non-Resident Indian Bill, 2019 was introduced in Rajya Sabha on February 11" he said, adding that the proposed legislation would offer greater protection to Indian citizens married to NRIs.
It will also help as a deterrent for NRIs against harassment of their spouses, and force the accused NRI spouse to come back to India to face legal consequences of his overt and covert acts, the minister said.
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