New year holds more promise for NRIs

New Delhi, Dec 30 (UNI) Voting right in their country of birth still eludes millions of Non-Resident Indians despite the government offering a bouquet of schemes for their welfare and also for engaging them in the process of nation development.

However, the undue delay in meeting the two-decade old craving of the NRIs to participate in the democratic elections is like to end next year with Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi promising to pass a legislation to confer voting rights on them in the new year.

The legislation seeking to amend the People's representation Act of 1951 to provide for voting right to the NRIs was introduced in Parliament a few months ago. The bill was then referred to a Standing Committee of Parliament for detailed scrutiny. The Committee had already submitted its recommendations. The final draft legislation is being readied by the Law Ministry on the basis of the recommendations of the Committee.

The year 2006 saw the OIA ministry coming out with a slew of schemes for the 25-million strong Indian diaspora spread across 110 countries.

But the focus was on an estimated five milion Indian workers abroad, a majority of them in the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia.

The year that rolls out saw a fair deal to the emigrant workers whose service and working conditions are poised to improve.

For the first time, the Indian government had signed labour agreements with the UAE and Belgium in the interest of promotion of overseas employment of its workers and protection of their rights.

Aimed at clipping the wings of the fake recruiting agents, the agreements lay special emphasis on formal employment contract as a precondition before departure of the worker. Under the agreement, contract could not be altered except with the permission of mission to enhance the workers benefits. The counter signature of the recruiting agent on the contract and the registration of every worker with the Indian mission by the foreign employer are made compulsory.

"Bilateral agreements formalise government-to-government engagement and can facilitate better management of international migration as an orderly and humane process aimed at benefiting both countries apart from the emigrants,'' OIA Minister Vayalar Ravi said, adding that similar contracts would be signed with Kuwait, Oman, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in the new year.

High on the agenda of the OIA ministry was the proposal to set up a University meant exclusively for the People of Indian Origin (PIO).

The roadmap for the PIO University has almost been finalised. It is proposed to be set up in a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) with the fund from the PIOs. The basic idea behind the PIO University, the brainchild of Prime Minister Singh, is to help the NRIs and PIOs to send their children to study in India at an affordable fee.

A major decision that will have far reaching impact is relating to the opening of "Pravasi Centres" in the new year in the Gulf, Malaysia and the United States which account for huge number of Indian diaspora.

With a view to making the emigration process simpler, more transparent and capable of orderly migration, the OIA ministry has started the process of amending the Indian Emigration Act, 1983. A bill, seeking to redresss complaints about exploitation and ill-treatment of emigrants by their employers and malpractices like substitution of contract, underpayment and delayed payment of wages, denial of contractual facilities, is sure to be introduced in the budget session of Parliament in March next year, according to top sources in the OIA ministry.

The bill would seek to make penalties for erring recruiting agents more stringent with a specific penal provision in respect of the offence of "people smuggling." The new law would also have an inbuilt mechanism to regulate emigration of women, especially those below the age of 30, who move out to foreign countries as domestic servants.

More UNI SH RP GC1121