IANS/New Delhi
India yesterday expanded the scope of a key fund scheme, meant to aid distressed overseas Indians, to cover penalties in case of overstay or detention, apart from financial support to set up community centres in host countries.
Vayalar Ravi
Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi announced the revision in the Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF) scheme at the seventh heads of missions conference here.
“I am happy to announce that the scope of ICWF has been made wider,” Ravi said, addressing the heads of missions from the six Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) nations, other Arab countries, Malaysia and the Maldives, which have nearly 7.5mn semi-skilled and unskilled Indian workers predominantly in the construction, healthcare and household services sectors.
The fund can now be utilised for meeting the boarding expenses of Indian nationals in distress in a foreign land from the existing 15 days to up to 30 days.
It can also be used for paying penalties faced by Indians staying illegally in a foreign country where prima facie the migrant worker is not at fault.
The fund may also come in hand for paying small fines to obtain the release of Indians in jail or detention abroad.
Apart from these, the ICWF would be used by the heads of missions to support local Indians, if they number over 100,000, to establish community centres, and also to set up Indian students centres if their number exceeds 20,000.
The ICWF was created in October 2009 for the benefit of unskilled and skilled labourers going abroad to work in 17 nations where emigration clearance is required. The fund, allotted by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA), is administered by the Indian heads of missions in these nations.
The scheme was extended to 24 nations in 2010 and further to cover all 181 Indian missions in 2011.
The ICWF, under existing provisions, is also used for extending emergency medical care to overseas Indians in need, providing air passage to stranded Indians abroad and initial legal assistance in deserving cases.
The MOIA has spent Rs210mn (nearly $4mn) on ICWF to help 19,179 Indians abroad in the last three years.
At the conference, which was also attended by heads of Indian missions from Angola, Thailand, Nigeria, Iraq and Libya, Ravi said his ministry had launched the Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Suraksha Yojana (MGPSY) in August this year on a pilot basis and the enrollment for the scheme would begin first in the United Arab Emirates later this month.
The MGPSY is mean to provide overseas Indian workers a pension, money for returning home, resettlement and life insurance during a five-year period.
“This is not charity. Rather it is based on his or her savings, while we contribute from the government to top it off. We give more to the women household workers as well,” the minister said.
Ravi also noted that his ministry has obtained an in-principle approval from the Planning Commission for a new scheme called the Swarna Pravas Yojana that proposes a skills development framework for standardised training, testing and certification of migrant workers going abroad on employment.
The scheme, he said, aims to train 5mn youth over the next 10 years across India for overseas employment.
The project would be implemented over a two plan period with the total financial support of Rs1.5bn ($27mn) for the 2012-17 12th Plan period and Rs3.5bn ($64mn) for the 2017-22 13th Plan period.