Scheme for emigrant workers soon: Ravi

More than two years after he first mooted the idea of setting up a fund to provide financial security to Indian workers returning in distress from abroad,Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi said on Thursday that the government would soon launch a scheme to provide resettlement expenses,insurance cover and pension benefits for emigrant Indian workers.

“When the migrant worker returns to India,he is older and has to start economic activity to support his family. He is not covered by any insurance scheme and has no savings to take care of his pension,” Ravi said,addressing the annual consultative meeting with state governments here. “We are very soon going to launch a scheme which would provide for resettlement expenses,insurance cover and pension provisions for emigrant Indian workers.”

The minister said he was “particularly concerned” about the 7.5 million overseas Indian workers mostly concentrated in the Middle-East. He did not spell out by when the government would come up with the scheme. His ministry has been pitching for establishing a ‘Return and Resettlement Fund’ to help Indian workers once they return after retirement or job loss. The plan could not see the light of day because of the huge financial implication the project entailed. On the ministry’s plan to amend the Emigration Act,1983,Ravi said it was in the final stages. The ministry has been working for years to amend the Act to put in place stringent punishment for human smuggling and provisions to regulate recruiting agencies.