Indian missions to help jilted NRI brides

The Govt hopes to provide legal and financial assistance to women who’ve been deserted by their NRI husbands abroad, reports C Chauhan. On the anvil.

Updated on: Jul 9, 2008, 10:00:51 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The government hopes to provide legal and financial assistance to women who’ve been deserted by their NRI husbands in foreign countries, and ensure their rehabilitation and repatriation.

An inter-ministerial committee examined and accepted several such recommendations — made by the inter-ministerial sub-committee — at a meeting attended by Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury and Overseas Affairs Minister Vyalar Ravi on Monday. There was agreement over the sub-committee’s recommendation that provisions on serving notices and summons, and enforcement of maintenance orders be made part of mutual legal assistance treaties that are in the pipeline with different countries, including the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

“It will help women in states like Punjab and Kerala get their dues from their NRIs husbands, who have deserted them,” a WCD Ministry official said. In normal circumstances, maintenance orders passed in Indian courts have little impact as they can’t be served to accused living abroad. Punjab alone accounts for over 15,000 women deserted by their NRI husbands.

The sub-committee also recommended that bilateral agreements be signed with other countries to protect victims of NRI marriages. And that such agreements include provisions that a divorce order of a foreign court be effective only if endorsed by an Indian court, decrees of Indian courts be enforceable abroad and Indian women be allowed representation in the country where divorce petitions have been filed against them. The WCD Ministry suggested these agreements be signed as soon as possible with those countries that have a large Indian diaspora.

For abandoned NRI wives, the sub-committee wants Indian embassies to come up with funds for their legal assistance, rehabilitation and repatriation. “The fund mechanism should be strengthened by engaging NGOs and NRI legal professionals to provide assistance,” the report says.

It also recommends that the government ask foreign missions to ensure visa isn’t granted without a marriage certificate and social security number, if applicable; that fast track courts take up litigation related to NRI marriages; and that the Law Ministry issue appropriate circulars.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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