The Human Resource Minister, Malaysia, Dr. S. Subramaniam and the Union Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs, Shri Vayalar Ravi exchanging the signed documents of the Memorandum of understanding (MOU) on employment of workers between India and Malaysia

The Indian Diaspora, spanning the globe, is widely acknowledged for its industry, enterprise, economic strength, professional skills and educational standards. Being conscious of their common identity of Indian origin as well as their cultural heritage, the diaspora is deeply attached to India. It has been an important factor in India’s relations with other countries and at the same time has contributed to national development of the country of their origin.

The initial wave of migration in the 19th century was driven by economic compulsions, mainly in response to the enormous demand for labour. In the 20th century, there was a steady outflow of professionals. Since independence, some overseas Indians have returned to their roots, particularly after the opening up of the economy. Emigration from India was regulated under the Emigration Act, 1922. This legislation was useful as an instrument of colonial rule. After independence, the emphasis was on protection of the Indian workers who chose to go for overseas employment. This concern was alien to the 1922 Act. As a result, despite the emigration law there was widespread exploitation of emigrants.

It was difficult for intending emigrants from the hinterland to even access the passport offices as the passport offices were in existence only in the four metropolitan cities. The problem became more acute when there was a rush of emigration following the oil boom in the Persian Gulf Region. It was under the visionary leadership of Smt. Indira Gandhi that the Emigration Act of 1922 was replaced by the Emigration Act, 1983 to address the issue of protecting emigrants effectively. Passport offices were set up in all the major cities of the country. Protectors of Emigrants were appointed.

The Union Minister of External Affairs, Shri Pranab Mukherjee and the Secretary General of the League of Arab States, Mr. Amre Moussa signing an agreement between India and Arab States

Today, there are an estimated 50 lakh overseas Indian workers working on temporary contractual employment in different parts of the world. More than 90% of these workers are in Gulf countries. In 2007 about 8.09 lakh workers migrated from India after obtaining emigration clearance from the Protectors of Emigrant (POE). The major sourcing states in India are Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan.
The Emigration Act, 1983 regulates recruitment and departure for overseas employment and lays down penalties for emigration offences. The recruiting agents are required to register with the Protector General of Emigrants (PGE).

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh took the initiative to create an independent Ministry to give effect to its commitment to devote mainstream attention to the overseas Indian community. The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs since its inception in 2004 has taken a host of measures to deepen the engagement with the Indian diaspora and to transform the emigration process for the protection and welfare of the overseas Indian workers. Complaints are received from emigrant workers regarding non-payment or delay in payment of wages, denial of contractual facilities by the employer, non-grant of leave or leave salary, alteration or substitution of contract, retention of passport, poor working and living conditions etc. Sometimes, complaints are received about harassment, ill-treatment, exploitation and physical abuse also.

Officials of Ministry, including the Protector General of Emigrants have standing instructions to promptly attend to all the complaints, suspend or cancel the Registration Certificate of errant Recruiting Agents and blacklist recalcitrant employers. After the transfer of the subject of emigration from the Labour Ministry in December 2004, the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) has initiated action at three levels - national, bilateral and multilateral. The objective is to make emigration of workers from India an orderly and humane economic activity for the benefit of all stakeholders. The guiding principles of the policy are to facilitate legal migration and discouraging illegal migration; and to maximize benefits and minimize risks for the emigrants.

The Ministry has taken a fresh look at the entire emigration system as enshrined in the Emigration Act, 1983 and the Emigration Rules. This has been done with reference to the need for redefining the scope of regulation, redesigning the emigration process and setting standards about the role and responsibilities of key stakeholders in the emigration process. Proposal for amending the Emigration Act and the Emigration Rules is already at an advanced stage.

The Ministry has done away with the requirement of “ECR Suspension” to enable ECR passport holders to travel on visit visa without obtaining any clearance from the POE. We have further liberalized the emigration system by restricting the application of the emigration process only to those possessing educational qualification below Class-X (ECR passport) and those going for work to only 17 countries (ECR countries). This has eliminated a major instrument of corruption and harassment in the system.

E-Governance is the order of the day. The Ministry is implementing a project for transforming the emigration process through e-Governance. The project is expected to mitigate individual discretion, harassment of emigrants and corruption. It would also provide useful tools and data for policy functions, periodical publications and grievance redressal. Smart cards would be issued to the emigrants under the project.

India had signed labour agreements with Jordan and Qatar in 1980s. However, no further progress was made in this direction for many years. Protecting emigrants against malpractices and exploitation is not possible without bilateral cooperation. The Ministry, after its creation in 2004 has singed MoUs with UAE, Kuwait, Oman and Malaysia as well as an Additional Protocol to the existing Labour Agreement between India and Qatar. MoU with Bahrain will be signed shortly. India’s strength in terms of availability of young and highly skilled workforce is widely acknowledged. This strength can be leveraged by countries of destination to meet their labour and skill shortages by forging Labour Mobility Partnerships with India.

The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs is taking earnest steps for forging labour mobility partnerships with key countries of destination in the European Union. Recently an MOU has been negotiated with Denmark. The Ministry has initiated the process for negotiating labour mobility agreements with Poland, Czech Republic, Norway, Switzerland, Hungary and Romania.
Bilateral social security agreements (SSA) can, on a reciprocal basis, protect the interests of workers by exempting them from social security contribution under the host country legislation (provided the worker continues to pay his contribution under the home country system). It could provide for portability of pension in case of those who have to contribute under the host country legislation. In order to prevent loss of contribution on account of the minimum contribution period, the SSAs provide for totalization of contribution periods covered under the two legislations. Such agreements also make companies of both contracting States more competitive.

The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs has signed bilateral social security agreements with Belgium, France and Germany. SSA has been negotiated and finalized with the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Luxembourg, which will be signed shortly. Negotiations are in progress with Hungary, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. The process has been initiated with Denmark, Cyprus, Australia, Spain, Bulgaria, Romania and several other countries as well. Two rounds of exploratory talks have been held with USA.
The Ministry has set up a “Council for Promotion of Overseas Employment”, as a Society under the Societies Registration Act of 1860. The Council is a two-tier body comprising a Governing Council and an Executive Directorate.

The Council will be at ‘arms-length’ from Government. It will have the autonomy and flexibility to build strong public-private partnerships, engage proactively in capacity building across stake-holders and best implement well calibrated strategies for better market access for Indian workers to benefit from overseas employment opportunities. The Ministry has recently established “Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF)” at the disposal of the Indian missions in all the ECR countries to enable them to undertake activities related to welfare of distressed emigrants.

The ICWF will provide services to emigrants on a means tested basis, for boarding and lodging for distressed overseas Indians; expenditure on incidental to and Airlifting of mortal remains to India or local cremation/burial of the deceased overseas Indian in such cases where a sponsor is unable or unwilling to do so; extending emergency medical care to the overseas Indians in need; providing air passage to stranded overseas Indians in need; and providing initial legal assistance to the overseas Indians in deserving cases.

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh and the Deputy Prime Minister of Oman, Mr. Sayyid Fahd Mahmoud Al Said, witnessing the signing of agreement between the India and Oman

Women are particularly vulnerable in the emigration environment. A host of measures have been taken by the Ministry for their protection and welfare. It has been stipulated that only women over 30 years would be allowed to emigrate on ECR passport to ECR countries. Their employment contract has to be necessarily attested by the Indian mission beforehand. Minimum wages have been laid down for women emigrants. The Missions have been asked to operate help-lines and shelters to assist run away or stranded women emigrants. The Ministry has launched a program for skill upgradation and pre-departure orientation. The ICWF will further strengthen the protection of women emigrants.

The ignorance of the intending emigrants is exploited by unscrupulous intermediaries. To overcome this difficulty the Ministry launched an Overseas Workers Resource Centre (OWRC) to provide information and assistance to intending emigrants and the family members of overseas workers relating to all aspects of overseas employment. The OWRC is operating a 12/7 helpline to provide need based information to emigrants and their families through a toll free number. The complaints or grievances received on the toll free helpline are promptly attended to and feed back provided to the complainant.

The Ministry regularly carries out multi-media awareness campaigns for educating the emigrants about emigration procedures, the pitfalls of illegal emigration and the precautions to be taken during recruitment and overseas employment. The Ministry is drafting an overarching national policy on overseas employment in consultation with stakeholders to articulate the vision of the Government on the subject and lay down the roadmap for future action.

The President Mrs. Pratibha Devisingh Patil has called for better regulatory systems and "best practices" in the management of capital markets as well as in fiscal policy. In her valedictory speech at the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas in Chennai, Mrs Patil underlined that sustainable economic growth is far too important to be left entirely to the market. The President called for a more inclusive and participative global financial architecture with restructuring of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. She said, this is required to prevent the recurrence of economic crises in the future.

Mrs. Patil said, the absence of regulation can and does create hazards. Global financial markets need a coherent set of transparent rules for all of the participants in order to have a fair and orderly market. Mrs Patil pointed out that India has an effective capital market regulator and a strong central bank and the growth impetus of the Indian economy stems essentially from its large and growing domestic market. The President said, India is seeking to bridge the infrastructure deficit and to achieve energy security, food security and human welfare security in a climate of a global slowdown but at the same time affirmed that India has the capacity to grow even in these difficult times.

Emphasising that India offers the opportunity to invest in a stable and growing market, she invited overseas Indians to benefit from the various economic opportunities that India offers, particularly in infrastructure. She called upon the diaspora to join in India’s efforts to reduce disparities, poverty, inequity and the knowledge divide between the 'haves' and the 'have - nots'.

Paying tributes to the common citizens, policemen, firemen and special forces who laid down their lives in the Mumbai attack, Mrs. Patil said, NRI investment in India will also be a strong rebuff to the terrorists who attacked Mumbai.

Commending the role of over five million overseas Indian workers who remit to India about US $ 10 to 12 billion annually, she asked the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs to consider to institute a separate set of awards from next year to recognize their contribution. She said, the Government could also look at innovative approaches to channelise foreign remittances, especially of workers for productive investment. The President said, India is proud of the Diaspora whose is a story of ordinary people with extraordinary courage and enterprise after travelling to distant lands.

The President gave away the Pravasi Bhartiya Samman awards for 2009 to 13 eminent personalities from across the world including the Vice President of Surinam, Mr Ramdien Sardjoe and the Vice President of Mauritius, Mr Angidi Veeriah Chettiar. In his acceptance speech, Mr. Chettiar said that persons of Indian origin cherish their links with India and find the awards a great honour. The Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Mr. Vayalar Ravi described the PBD-2009 as a watershed event where the language and cultural linkages between the diaspora and India were strengthened. He said partnerships forged during the convention will be converted to real projects and programmes. The Tamil Nadu Governor Mr. Surjeet Singh Barnala in his speech, lauded the overseas Indians for helping to create a ‘Brand India’ and highlighted the investment potential in the state, particularly in the infrastructure sector.