God has answered to the prayers of the migrant Indian wives, who have been abandoned, harassed or subject to domestic violence by their Non Residential Indian (NRI) husbands. Ministry of External Affairs in India has taken cognisance of the situation and have affirmed that NRIs who desert their wives could face cancellation of their passports and even deportation to India.
Statistics show that thousands of Indian women move to the UK every year, following their husbands as dependants, with dreams to create a house filled with love and laughter. But the reality is often different. Hundreds of these women find themselves abused and exploited due to a provision in immigration law in which the sponsoring partner - the husband - is able to cancel his partner's visa by merely writing an email to the Home Office, leaving the women in limbo.
These wives who are then either abandoned in India on pretext of a vacation, or are thrown out of their houses in the UK, controlled and ill-treated mostly for financial reasons, are even driven to commit suicide or beg on streets. Most of them have no idea that the High Commission of India has a women cell, that may be able to advise them free of cost, though certain limitations exist. That is where organisations like the Indian Ladies in the UK come forward to assist the helpless women.
India's Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj has also come on board to support this organisation's women. Taking cognisance of various complaints about women being deserted by their better halves in a foreign land, the Ministry has created a special panel, that promises to 'hear and see', investigate and provide support wherever possible. According to reports, the panel also recommended that cases of domestic violence should be included in the extradition treaties signed between India and other countries. Compulsory registration of NRI marriages and increasing financial aid from $3,000 (£2215) to $6,000 (£4430) provided by Indian missions to the women who have been abandoned by their husbands were among the key recommendations made by the panel.
An Indian Ministry official affirmed that both Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi have taken up the issue seriously and have also addressed it on several public forums. Once the passport of the NRI man has been cancelled and he is present in India, he will not be allowed to leave the country till the case goes on. He would be deported to India even if he was residing abroad.
The panel will be responsible for carrying on with the extradition process of these NRI husbands back to India to attend the trial proceedings. It is reportedly extremely difficult to get the husband back to the country and face legal proceedings as far as cases of dowry and domestic violence are concerned.
Indian Ladies in the UK (ILUK), a non-profit organisation, has 21,000 members and is made up of the first generation migrant Indian women in the UK. Founded in 2015, ILUK's primary focus is campaigning on behalf of victims of domestic violence, forced marriage, spousal abandonment and international child abduction. The group has helped hundreds of women in the UK in a variety of ways.
The National Commission for Women (NCW) stated that as many as 346 cases and complaints from women were recorded in 2014. Most of the complaints involve husbands deserting their wives after marrying them in India, taking the child away from the mother or taking them abroad and abandoning them in foreign countries.
Speaking to Asian Voice, ILUK Founder Poonam Joshi said, “I welcome the recommendations made by the Ministry of External Affairs. Since I began Indian Ladies in UK (ILUK) we have been approached by hundreds of women who have been callously deserted by their husbands in India. It's appalling that these vulnerable women are left abandoned by the men they are supposed to trust. I have seen first hand the emotional and psychological toll this takes on the victims and the perpetrators have got away with it for too long. We have helped many of these women in whichever way we can but it has been very apparent that we need cooperation and action from both the British and Indian governments as well as expanding the ability of Indian embassies around the world to help victims. So the MEA panel's policy recommendations are a step in the right direction. I sincerely hope that India's politicians take the lead of our Foreign Minister and the Women and Child Development Minister and introduce these recommendations into law. Whatever the outcome, I am determined to continue our fight for justice for these forgotten victims of India's patriarchy.”