Training programs for officials to handle cases of women deserted by NRIs, recommend experts

For handling cases of women deserted in NRI marriages, experts have recommended conducting training programs for agencies and police officers dealing with NRI cases, embassies to take up the matter of distressed women on priority and setting up a national helpline for victims.

The National Commission for Women (NCW) on Wednesday organised a consultation on -- transnational access to justice to women deserted in NRI Marriages: Policy and Procedural Gaps -- to bring together all the concerned stakeholders designated to provide relief to Indian women deserted by their NRI husbands on one platform and to deliberate upon the challenges and technical issues faced in dealing with NRI matrimonial cases. The experts have recommended that such women should be informed about various schemes of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

To get diverse views, the Commission invited experts from the Ministry of Women & Child Development, Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs, NGOs and concerned law enforcement agencies such as Police, Indian Embassies, Missions abroad, Regional Passport Officers, National, State, District Legal Service Authorities, etc. to deliberate upon the real challenges and technical issues faced in NRI matrimonial cases.

The experts also discussed the impact of the decree passed by court of foreign country pertaining to the matters of divorce, maintenance, child custody and inheritance etc. on the aggrieved women; and deliberated upon the existing provisions under the Indian legal system which could provide relief to such women.

According to a reply to the RTI filed by Kerala-based activist and RTI campaigner K. Govindan Nampoothiry, in the last seven years, the government of India received as many as 2,156 complaints of Indian brides being deserted or ghosted by their NRI husbands.

Out of these, 615 cases were reported from the US followed by 586 cases in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and 237 cases from Singapore. The government received 119 such complaints from Saudi Arabia, 111 from Kuwait, 104 from the United Kingdom (UK), 102 from Australia, and 92 cases from Canada.