Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi announced revisions in the Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF) scheme at the seventh heads of missions conference in New Delhi, Monday. The Fund covers nearly 7.5 million NRI's working in six Gulf Coordination Council (GCC) nations, other Arab countries, Malaysia and Maldives where semi-skilled and unskilled Indians work predominantly in the construction, healthcare and household services sectors. Under the revisions the Fund can now be utilized for meeting the boarding expenses of Indian nationals in distress in a foreign land for 30 days rather than the previous 15 days. It can also be used for paying the penalties faced by Indians staying illegally in a foreign country in cases where the migrant worker is not at fault. The Fund may also be used for paying small fines to obtain the release of Indians in jail or in detention abroad. Apart from this, the ICWF will be used by the heads of missions to support local Indians, if their population numbers over 100,000, by establishing community centers, and by establishing centers for Indian students, if their number exceeds 20,000. 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. Ravi also announced that the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) launched the Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Suraksha Yojana (MGPSY) last month on a pilot basis and the enrollment for this scheme will begin first in the United Arab Emirates later this month. The MGPSY is meant to provide overseas Indian workers with a pension, a sum for returning home, resettlement and life insurance during a five-year period. The minister 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 standardized training, testing and certification of migrant workers going abroad for employment. The scheme, he said, aims to train five million youth over the next 10 years across India for overseas employment. The project will be implemented over a two plan period with total financial support of Rs1.5 billion ($27 million) for the 2012-17 12th Plan period and Rs3.5 billion ($64 million) for the 2017-22 13th Plan period. Overseas Indian workers duped by unscrupulous intermediaries in the host countries, runaway house maids, those who become victims of accidents, deserted spouses of overseas Indians or undocumented overseas Indian workers in need of emergency assistance or any other overseas Indian citizens who are in distress will be the main beneficiaries of the ICWF. I think this is an excellent measure on the part of the government of India. Hope of better life abroad lures thousands of Indians living in substandard conditions in India but not all get lucky and are compelled to deal with some of the harsh realities of settling overseas. At least a measure like this will empower them to head back to their country of origin, and back to their near and dear ones. I hope this initiative will go a long way in helping the Indian expatriates in Saudi prisons who have already completed their sentence, but are not being released because they are unable to pay the fines which are part of their sentence. Mir Gazanfar Ali Zaki, Jeddah
