Challenges faced by NRI Women
Relevance: Sociology: Emerging issues: ageing, sex ratios, child and infant mortality, reproductive health. Challenges of Social Transformation: (a) Crisis of development: displacement, environmental problems and sustainability. (b) Poverty, deprivation and inequalities. (c) Violence against women. & G.S paper II: International & G.S paper I: Society and social issues
Indian diaspora and issue faced by them
- NRIs occupy an enviable role.
The remittances from them help the economy apart from their families and their number is increasing (nearly 15.6 million Indian-born immigrants live abroad).
Problems faced by women married to NRI men
The problem of non-resident Indian (NRI) women trapped in situations of domestic torture a great distance away from immediate family and living in a culture that is at best unfamiliar and at worst alien, is not new. With increasing emigration from across India’s socio-economic strata the number of such women too has increased phenomenally.
- While the women labelled “NRI brides” represent a myriad of different backgrounds, official as well as other studies show that Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Gujarat register the highest number of complaints. Each of these states, among others in the country, has a backlog of pending cases filed by abused/cheated women.
- The complaints range from abandonment after marriage (either in India or abroad), bigamous unions (the man already has a wife abroad), false information about the man’s job and earnings, harassment for dowry, domestic violence, and ex-parte divorce based on false documents. These cases predominantly are from the United Kingdom, the United States (US) and West Asia where most of the Indian diaspora is based. The women hail from different educational backgrounds, ranging from semi-literate to engineering and computer technology graduates.
- There are innumerable cases where the woman finds that she is not really a life partner as much as cheap domestic labour and caregiver in foreign countries where such services cost an arm and a leg.
Way forward
- The Indian government needs to be more proactive rather than wait for complaints to deal with the issue (the Punjab state government has set up police stations to handle such complaints).
A committee set up by the present government has recommended the cancellation of the passports of NRIs found harassing or deserting their wives, inclusion of cases of domestic violence in the scope of extradition treaties, and increase in financial assistance provided to the women by Indian missions abroad.
- It has also called upon state governments to compulsorily register all marriages, including NRI ones, until a central law to this effect comes into force, besides entering all the bridegroom’s legal details on the marriage registration form and setting up a national mechanism to deal with complaints
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