NRI Cell formed under NCW to provide legal help to abandoned wives in case of overseas marriage

An edited version of the article appeared in the Indian Express on September 25, 2009.

Chinki Sinha
New Delhi, September 24, 2009

She doesn’t watch travel channels anymore. And if she stumbles upon those, she switches off the television, shuts her mind to the memories of a life that Hardeep Kaur (name changed because the case is sub judice) lived for a mere 14 months.

Two-and-a-half years ago when Kaur created a profile on the matrimonial website www.shaadi.com, she was 35 years old, a professional, who wanted to settle down with a man who was equally qualified and preferably living abroad.

She found her man, and then started a chain of long telephone conversations stretching into the nights. He was a corporate honcho, shuttling between countries, and living a life she always wanted. They decided to meet. Two months later he flew down from United Kingdom, and the couple decided to get married.

And then the nightmares began. Kaur flew to United Kingdom, and was abused and harassed and later abandoned, she said. She left for India 14 months later, and had to start from scratch again.

“It is a double blow. All of a sudden you pack your bags and leave for a life that you have dreamt of, with a man you trust. Then you come back and you resurrect your life yet again,” she said. “Everything has traces of memory of a different life, things that you did together, places that you travelled together.”

A few months ago she stumbled upon the NRI Cell under the National Commission of Women that has been nominated as the coordinating agency at the national level for dealing with issues that relate to NRI marriages by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs. While the cell was launched in August, it was formally inaugurated Thursday by Girija Vyas, the chairperson of NCW, who said the newly-formed cell is already working on 6-7 cases where women have approached them with their complaints.

Now, Kaur is hopeful. The anger, the bitterness and the sense of loss can be now be channelized to bring the man to books.

Kaur’s case in one of the thousands of cases of such marriages gone wrong and tales of harassment and abandonment are not unusual. As a NCW member, she will not fight her case and also offer counselling to others who went through the same trauma.

In Punjab alone, the number of active cases is more than 30,000, according to NCW officials.

Various state governments, including Gujarat, where incidence of such cases is high have begun public awareness campaigns to educate families and women on Supreme Court judgments on matrimonial laws and their rights. In Gujarat, in 2008 out of the 20,000 matrimonial cases registered across 57 wards, almost five percent of those are of overseas marriage where the NRI grooms have duped the women.

Other than Gujarat and Punjab, where locals say many houses that have a family member abroad display miniature ships or aeroplanes on the roof as a show of status and even offer toy aircrafts at the Talhan G urudwara near Jalandhar because it is widely believed that chances of going abroad increase with it, Kerela and Andhra Pradesh are the other two states that have seen an upsurge in the number of such cases.

Ajay Kumar, a coordinator for the NRI Cell and a lawyer, said in such communities, the aspirations run high.

“They feel if the girl goes abroad, then the brother will follow, and the family too can migrate. It is the social-economic climate there. For the NRIs it is like honeymoon tourism, they know the law can’t do anything to them,” he said. “As a Cell, we are still in the formative stages. We have to work out the modalities. The legal options we can tell them are domestic violence and dowry, both criminal offences. Education will be the way. Maybe we are helpless now but we have made a humble start.”

As a recommending body, the NCW can only function in an advisory capacity, she said. However, the NRI Cell will render assistance to women, provide legal counselling to them, try for reconciliation and network with NGOs and is even trying to form bilateral and multilateral consensus with the four countries – United States, which has the highest incidence of such cases, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia - so that foreign courts do not issue a divorce decree without the presence of the wife as happened with Amarjit, who was married last year to man who said he had a Belgian passport through a Punjabi matrimonial website.

Everything had seemed perfect last year in February when she found the match on the website. He was Sikh and lived in Europe. She couldn’t have asked fro more, she said.

The family agreed. Delhi’s Tilak Nagar resident Amarjit would marry, they would apply for her visa, and she would fly to a country she only saw on television, or read about it in magazines, and upgrade her life. She was 25 when she married. When her husband prepared to leave India after three months, she asked him about her visa. He dodged the questions, she said.

When she filed an FIR in Ludhiana where she was living with her aunt after she got suspicious, her husband left the country. She called his home in England, and he hung up on her, she said.

Months later, she found him on the matrimonial website courting women. His status said “separated”, Amarjit said.

“I don’t know why he left me. I will never know,” she said. “Perhaps he wanted me to serve his parents in Chandigarh, be like a maid. Everything came crashing.”

Amarjit’s case is among the several cases that are now with the NCW.

The NCW is also partnering with United Nations Development Fund for Women that will help by providing technical support and help the cell raise funds. Through its huge network with NGOs worldwide, it can help the cell coordinate and build data banks, Anne Stenhammer, its representative said.

“The cell can support the government in its efforts. These women, particularly if they are in a different country, are vulnerable. This can be the safety net,” she said.

According to the NCW officials, the NRI units will be formed at embassies in foreign countries as the first point of contact for such women. The NRI cell at the ICCW in Delhi will then look into the complaints and take suo moto notice in accordance with Section 10 (1) (f) of the NCW Act of 1990.

It has already started the first overseas office at Indian embassy in Britain.

The cell will also use the media extensively to dissipate information about the NRI Cell in rural areas too, officials said.

For Amarjit, it offers some hope.

"I have gone to the police. Nothing was done. Maybe I will find help here," she said. "I want him to be punished. He says he is in UK, and not under Indian law. I want him to suffer for what he has done."

How to register complaints

The concept of the NRI Cell is based on the recommendation of the Parliamentary Committee on Empowerment of Woman (14th Lok Sabha) on the subject “ Plight of Indian Woman deserted by NRI husbands”.

Women can register their complaints on the NCW website http://ncw.nic.in/frmNRICell.aspx.