Indian Emigration Act to be amended: Vyalar Ravi

The Act was last amended in 1983 and there was need to make it more stringent, Ravi told reporters.

The Indian Emigration Act needs to be further amended to give it "more teeth," Union Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vyalar Ravi said on Friday.

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The act was last amended in 1983 and there was need to make it more stringent, Ravi told reporters in Kochi.

The Minister said he had come across reports about fake recruiting agents and the sad plight of the Indians, especially women, who are taken for a ride.

"We should know where the Indian workers are taken for jobs and by whom," he said.

About 25 million Indians were presently working abroad of which about four-five million were in the Gulf, and were mostly Keralites, he said.

Ravi said there were also plans to modernise the office of Protector of Emigrants by introducing computerisation.

This would streamline its functioning, making it more transparent and effective. It would also result in reducing malpractices.

Ravi, who is on his first trip to Kerala after being elevated as Union Minister, on Friday visited the office of the Protector of Emigrants in Kochi.