The problems of non-resident Indians, include poor work and living conditions, which are at times worse than that of those who spend their life on the footpaths of Mumbai.
HAVING SPENT more than two decades of my life in the West and the Middle East, I have had first-hand experience of the problems and aspirations of non-resident Indians (NRIs). Believe me it is never an easy life. You can divide NRIs into two broad categories. There is the creamy layer: the highly-educated and well-paid executives and businessmen, both in the West and the Middle East, who live in the lap of luxury by dint of their abilities and qualifications. Their problems centere on money transfer, purchase of real estate, setting up factories and businesses, and sometimes legal problems and sometimes even adoption. However, aside from their imperious airs and attitudes, they also face racial discrimination and insults in their adopted countries. Back home, their relatives and their government consider them treasure-troves.
There is another lot of NRIs – the hapless, less-educated and helpless souls you may call ‘indentured labour’ or ‘contract labour’ who drudge through their lives in these Gulf countries. Death is never pretty but when it visits an expatriate in the Gulf, it is one hell. No one knows when the body will be cleared by authorities; when it will be out of the mortuary and when it will be buried or sent back. Let the readers know that at least half a dozen Indians die in the Gulf every week.
There are many who are never paid on time and live in the worst possible conditions that would be beyond the imagination of even a person roughing it up on the foot-paths of Mumbai. Even sending home the money he earns, is a nightmare as there are long lines at money transfer counters. Many times the drafts are lost in post and everyone back home suffers. His job is based on the whims of the all-powerful Kafil or sponsor. He can be met with the worst of humiliations which he must stoically bear as embassy staff are usually beyond approach and indifferent. Even sickness is a dreadful challenge.
Those who are in between the creamy layer and underdogs face a different set of problems. Their kids are discriminated back home and admissions are an uphill and almost impossible task. They are fleeced in the name of a legal NRI quota and exploited at every front. There are a number of women workers employed as house-maids and nurses. A plethora of tales can be gathered and epics could be written about the miseries and hardship they face in alien lands. They are sometimes even pushed into prostitution.
The rehabilitation of NRIs is another serious issue as this simple pardesi loses touch with the ground realities of India – the Indian way of life and Indian way of communication. There are always cheats awaiting him right from the airport to his neighbourhood. Let the countrymen know that 90 per cent of total foreign direct investment comes from 20 million NRIs whose economic production equals that of one billion Indians. These unsung heroes of the Indian economy should be given their due representation in parliament as one way of assisting them in facing the problems I have mentioned above. I apologize to those expatriates whose problems I have failed to mention here.
