annual report1-final.qxd - Overseas Indian

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Parallel Sessions Panelists at the parallel session on ‘Indians in the Gulf’ in Hyderabad on January 9, 2006. ming up of the proceedings and vote of thanks. ! PARALLEL SESSIONS Chair: Presentation: Keynote Speaker: Speakers: Parallel I: Indians in the Gulf M.M. Hassan, Chairman, NORKA-ROOTS R. K. Singh, PGOE, MOIA Prof. Binod Khadria, NUS, Singapore Ali Shabbir Mohd., Minister for I&PR and Energy, AP Abhay Mehta, Dubai T. K. Jose, Kerala Suresh Kumar, Dubai Madhavan, Sharjah K. Kumar, Dubai The first parallel session, ‘Indians in the Gulf’, was chaired by M.M.Hassan, Chairman, NORKA- ROOTS. After giving a brief introduction to the proceedings, he invited R.K.Singh, PGOE, MOIA, to give his presentation. Singh presented a paper on overseas employment. Starting with statistics, he said that, by 2020, India would be the world’s youngest nation with a workforce of 820 million as compared to 400 million today. He opined that due to the Middle-East oil boom in 1970, overseas employment shifted radically, creating vast opportunities mainly for unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled workers. Talking about the Emigration Act 1983, he pointed out that it played an important role in regulating emigration and safeguarding the interests of Indians abroad. Compulsory registration was to be followed by the recruitment agencies (RAs), which would bring down the cases of fraud and cheat. He also talked about many other regulations that were important. He said that a great degree of flexibility had come into effect because of the liberalisation policy and areas had been identified where there was no need for clearance checks. He then proposed some liberalised measures undertaken by the Ministry: ! Introduction of Pravasi Bharatiya Bima Yojana 2006 with better insurance coverage. 32
Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Pravasi Bharatiya Divas ! Coverage to be extended from Rs. 2 lakh to Rs. 5 lakh. ! Starting of pre-departure Orientation Programmes for overseas workers with the help of State Governments. ! Issue of smart cards for emigrant workers containing all information regarding his/her employment and insurance. ! Providing 24x7 helpline at 13 identified missions. ! Providing legal aid to overseas workers in cases of labour related problems. ! Involving NGOs as information resource centers for providing advice to potential overseas workers. ! Setting up of the Central Manpower Export Promotion Council for assigning current requirements and projecting future labour needs in foreign destinations. ! Setting up of an Overseas Workers’ Welfare Fund either by providing a one-time lump sum grant by the Government or by charging a nominal amount from the emigrants while granting emigration clearance. ! Initiatives had been taken to chalk out memorandums of understanding (MoUs) on manpower with Oman and Maldives. In the end, he talked about the importance of updating the national manpower profile and reviewing the skill profile in relation to foreign employment demand and enhancing quality and certification process. Binod Khadria, the keynote speaker, gave a presentation on the theme of overseas employment. He opined that international migration had risen to the top of the global policy agenda but the international community had failed to capitalise on the opportunities and meet the challenges associated with it. In his presentation, he pointed out that there was an unwarranted dichotomy between skilled and unskilled migrant workers. All of them could legitimately form part of ‘essential workers’, as referred in the GRIM Report, 2005. He talked about the four steps towards an untapped powerhouse: generic classification of knowledge and service worker; identifying the stakeholders; spelling out the supplying and receiving country stakes in streamlining the service-worker migration from India (here he pointed out that low cost labour replacements gave the receiving countries the advantage of age, wage and vintage); and job-search, job-certification, hedging against uncertainties, compensation mechanism, return passage (preventive as well as curative). He also spoke about a training, certification and accreditation hub in South Asia. Ali Shabbir Mohd talked about the steps taken by the Andhra Pradesh Government for the Indian diaspora. He said that his Government now had a separate Department for the Indian diaspora on the lines of the Kerala model. Madhavan, President of the Sharjah Indian Association, pointed out that NRIs in the Gulf were facing many problems. Talking about the children of the NRI families, he wanted the Government to reserve some quota in official colleges in India. He said NRI families back home too faced a lot of problems and the Government should take note of these things. He also requested that NRI identity cards should be given. K. Kumar said that he had spent 35 years of his life in Dubai and was working for the cause of the Indian community at Dubai. His main concern was about the exploitation of women. Another major issue that he talked about — and many of the delegates during the discussions raised that issue — was about the repatriation of human remains. He pointed out that nobody was looking at this issue. In Dubai, it was being taken care of by the Indian Community Welfare Committee, which was just an organisation. He also talked about the increasing number of deaths and suicide, homesickness and unfulfilled dreams of the NRI community in the Gulf region. There were short presentations by Abhay Mehta, T.K. Jose and Suresh Kumar, and most of them expressed similar concerns and recommended steps for a better engagement. In the discussions that followed, there was a lot of heated debate on various problems that the NRIs in the Gulf faced. Many of the delegates put their community and personal experiences in their respective country of engagements in the Gulf 33
Page 1: Pravasi Bharatiya DIVAS PROCEEDINGS
Page 4 and 5: Introduction India is a vibrant nat
Page 6 and 7: Inaugural Session KATHRADA stated t
Page 8 and 9: Plenary Session 1 S.Krishna Kumar,
Page 10 and 11: Plenary Session 1 must consider the
Page 12 and 13: Plenary Session 2 would be addresse
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Page 16 and 17: Plenary Session 3 Internet technolo
Page 18 and 19: Plenary Session 4 its in their Indi
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Page 32 and 33: Plenary Session 5 networks, he said
Page 36 and 37: Parallel Sessions region. A major i
Page 38 and 39: Parallel Sessions Intern, 4th IDYP
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Page 42 and 43: Parallel Sessions old age home shou
Page 44 and 45: Panel Discussions Panelists at the
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Page 50 and 51: Roundtable 2 regulatory framework.
Page 52 and 53: Valedictory President A.P.J. Abdul
Page 54 and 55: Annexure1: Programme Schedule 0930-
Page 56 and 57: Annexure1: Programme Schedule Mr. G
Page 58 and 59: Annexure 3: List of Speakers 1. DR.
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Page 62 and 63: Annexure 3: List of Speakers 75. B.
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