Just days after Indian government announced its plan to address the issue of Non-Resident Indian (NRI) husbands abandoning their wives by proposing to seize their properties in India, the National Commission of Women (NCW) on Sunday said the department is flooded with complaints from distressed NRI wives.
The NCW has said they have received a high number of complaints in its NRI cell.
During 2016-17, 496 cases were registered with varying degrees of complexity.
Maharashtra topped the list with the highest number of cases, 52 complaints.
42 women from Uttar Pradesh, 41 women from Tamil Nadu and 40 women from Punjab have recently approached the NRI cell of the Commission.
“The number of cases received by the NRI cell is on the rise as women are aware that the commission is actively working on the issue,” NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma told .
Australia-based Akashika Mohla who has been working closely with such cases and has been involved in helping them says she is not surprised.
“This is a huge problem in our society where the parents feel that a hefty dowry will ensure a good life for their daughter and they go ahead with the marriage without checking the groom’s credentials.
“I have come across cases where the man is already married or is in a live-in relationship.
“He is either too afraid to tell this to his family or is lured with dowry by the family.”
Officials in Ministry of Women and Child Development say that despite Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) issuing a booklet on , which contains information about safeguarding woman’s interest during and after marriage, the number of cases has not gone down.
The MEA recently told the Indian Parliament that they receive a complaint from NRI woman every eight hours.
3,328 complaints were received in 1,064 days between January 2015 and November 2017 from wives of NRIs.
Many victims approach the ministry through social media and many directly contact External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
Though there are no government data on this, papers published by some NGOs in recent times have estimated that there are about 25,000 abandoned women living in Punjab and Gujarat each, deserted shortly after weddings.
“A lot needs to be done but seizing properties of grooms who abandoned their wives is a very good start,” Mohla told SBS Hindi.
