Notwithstanding certain reservations, England has assured India of help on the issue of broken NRI marriages. The assurance came after a series a meetings that National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Girija Vyas had with the British authorities last week.

Vyas told The Indian Express that “British, however, perceive the issue of abandoned spouses as part of the South Asian culture of arranged marriages, which for them is another form of forced marriages.’’

Nearly 300 cases of forced marriages — mostly from the South Asians — are reported to the Forced Marriages Cell of the British Home Office each year. Vyas told the British authorities that “Indian situation was more related to dowry demands.” They have offered to furnish visa records of all recent Indian immigrants to the Indian High Commission, which could be made available to families in India to check the antecedents of would-be son-in-laws before finalising the marriage.

In many cases, NRI men have tied nuptial knot in India just to defraud gullible families of huge amounts as dowry only to abandon their wives later.

The UK authorities, Vyas said, were also worried about this since they feared the “forced marriages are a major cause of increasing domestic violence in the country.’’ In Britain, one-fourth of the families face incidents of domestic violence.

The NCW chief has decided to mobilise the victims of NRI marriages both in India and the UK and cobble them into a counselling group. The Commission has invited Satinder Kaur — a London-based campaigner, who moved out of a forcible marriage at the age of 14 and is now running an NGO for victims — to head the group. Vyas has also asked the Centre to review its decision against signing the Hague Protocol, that entitles spouses in signatory countries to legal help in case of being cheated by the partner.