Lok Sabha Question No. 2531 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-12-04
Subject: Visit to Gulf Countries
Ministry: EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
Asked by: Alok Kumar Suman

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2531 TO BE ANSWERED ON 04.12.2019

## VISIT TO GULF COUNTRIES

## 2531.    DR. ALOK KUMAR SUMAN:

Will the Minister of EXTERNAL AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether a large number of people of Gopalganj and neighbouring districts visited Gulf countries and earned huge amount of foreign revenue;
- (b) if so, the total number of people of district Gopalganj of Bihar who frequently visited Gulf countries;
- (c) the details of facilities made available to them by the Ministry; and
- (d) the total number of persons of district Gopalganj of Bihar who are unable to return to their respective homes?

## ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS [SHRI V. MURALEEDHARAN ]

(a) & (b) The Ministry captures data of persons going abroad for employment to the Emigration Check Required (ECR) countries who require clearance. Majority of such persons are holder of ECR passports. Emigration Check Not Required or ECNR passport holders going for employment generally do not require clearance. They can register voluntarily. Therefore, it is difficult to arrive at accurate figures of Indian nationals who have gone abroad. The data captured in the eMigrate system, through which clearance is   given   for   employment   to   Gulf   Countries   from   the   district   of   Gopalganj   and neighbouring districts, namely, Siwan, East Champaran, West Champaran, Muzaffarpur and Saran since 2015 is as follows.

| Year          |   Gopalganj |   Siwan |   East Champaran |   West Champaran |   Muzaffarpur |   Saran |
|---------------|-------------|---------|------------------|------------------|---------------|---------|
| 2015          |       21620 |   24894 |             4292 |             6040 |          2793 |    3774 |
| 2016          |       15636 |   16586 |             3193 |             4902 |          2426 |    2823 |
| 2017          |       15646 |   15187 |             2844 |             4187 |          2326 |    2345 |
| 2018          |       12211 |   12593 |             2661 |             4061 |          2024 |    2361 |
| 2019 (31 Oct. |        9074 |    8886 |             2208 |             3022 |          1489 |    1873 |
| Total         |       74187 |   78146 |            15198 |            22212 |         11058 |   13176 |

As far   as   earning   of   foreign   revenue   is   concerned,   Indian   workers   in   Gulf Countries do send remittance to India from time to time during the period of their employment there.

(c)     The Government has taken several steps to safeguard the interests of Indian emigrants in the Gulf and other ECR countries. These include:

- (i) The   on-line   MADAD   portal   enables   the   emigrant   workers   and   their   family members to register their consular grievances on-line and track their redressal.
- (ii) Grievances   related   to   Overseas   Employment   in   notified   Emigration   Check Required (ECR) countries can also be lodged directly by emigrants/relatives or through the Pravasi Bharatiya Sahayata Kendra, Delhi (PBSK) which is linked to

e-Migrate   portal.   These   grievances   are   settled   by   respective   jurisdictional Protectors of Emigrants (PoEs) as per laid down procedures.

- (iii) Pravasi Bharatiya Sahayata Kendras (PBSK) have been set up at Dubai (UAE), Sharjah (UAE), Riyadh, Jeddah (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), to provide guidance and counseling on all matters pertaining to overseas Indian workers.
- (iv) Kshetriya Pravasi Sahayata Kendras (KPSK) have been setup in Delhi, Kochi, Hyderabad,  Chennai   and   Lucknow   to   assist   emigrants   or   their   relatives   to redress their problems/complaints regarding overseas employment.
- (v) Grievances brought to the notice of the Ministry and the Missions through social media, including twitter, are promptly addressed.
- (vi) Missions have established 24x7 Helplines and Toll Free Helplines for the benefit of Indian workers to seek help.

(vii) The Missions   utilise   the   Indian   Community   Welfare   Fund   (ICWF)   to   provide assistance to overseas Indian nationals in times of distress. The guidelines of the Indian community welfare fund have been revised recently to expand the scope of welfare measures and to cover three key areas, namely, assisting overseas Indian nationals   in   distress   situations,   community   welfare   activities   and   improvement   in consular services.

(viii) Labour and Manpower Cooperation MoUs/Agreements are in place with the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries that provide the institutional framework to comprehensively discuss and review labour related issues.   In accordance with the Labour and Manpower Cooperation/Agreement, Joint Working Group (JWG) meetings are held on regular basis to discuss various labour related issues.

(d) According to information sent by our Missions in the Gulf, no such cases have been registered with any of them.

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