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Recently the External Affairs Minister has announced an increase in the legal and financial aid offered to Indian women deserted by their NRI husbands in 13 countries. Will this really help the wives? The author tries to answer.
The financial aid which was limited to USD 3000 in developed countries and USD 2000 in developing countries has now been increased to USD 4000 across nations.
In India getting our daughters married to an NRI man is still an aspiration for many. It is seen as a perfect arrangement by parents, who feel their daughters would have a better life and opportunities abroad. However, in an arranged marriage scenario, if the potential groom is from abroad, not much information can be gathered or proper scrutiny conducted.
In fact, usually the NRI boys come to India for a period of thirty days or so in which they meet suitable matches, finalise and get married before flying abroad again. There have been instances where young brides have learned that their NRI husbands already have a family abroad post reaching the foreign lands. There are also cases where women are subjected to domestic violence or mental and emotional torture.
Sometimes the only purposes of these marriages are to get dowry, post which the men usually leave the country and cut all contact with their new wives. At times, wives are deserted in the foreign country by their husbands. As most of them are dependents they wouldn’t have the means to file the necessary documents to get justice. Between 2015 to 2017, as many as 3500 cases of desertion by NRI husbands were reported.
Desertion of wife is now being treated as a serious offence and the husbands may suffer many formidable consequences including loss of their assets in India. The government came down heavily on deserter husbands by displaying summons on their official website. Even their passports may be revoked and Look Out Circulars might be generated in their names.
Hence the increase in financial aid is another welcome step that has come to provide relief to the deserted wives, and in the last four years it has helped as many as 43 women across the globe.
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