Fund scheme to help distressed overseas Indians revised

New Delhi - India Monday 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.

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," Vayalar Ravi said, addressing heads of missions from the six Gulf Coordination Council (GCC) nations, other Arab countries, Malaysia and Maldives, which have nearly 7.5 million semi-skilled and unskilled Indian workers predominantly in construction, healthcare and household services sectors.

The fund can now be utilised for meeting 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 fine to obtain 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 their population numbers over a lakh, to establish community centres, as also establishing 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 Indian heads of missions to 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 Rs.21.7 crore (nearly $4 million) 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, Vayalar Ravi also informed the heads of missions that the MOIA had launched the Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Suraksha Yojana (MGPSY) in August this year on a pilot basis and the enrollment for this scheme would begin first in the United Arab Emirates later this month.

The MGPSY is mean to provide overseas Indian workers a pension, a sum 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.

Vayalar 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 five million youth over the next 10 years across India for overseas employment.

The project would be implemented over a two plan period with total financial support of Rs.150 crore ($27 million) for the 2012-17 12th Plan period and Rs.350 crore ($64 million) for the 2017-22 13th Plan period.