Online system to protect migrant Indian workers
A web-based information sharing system for overseas Indian workers will be trialled in the United Arab Emirates. The scheme by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs will allow attestation of employment contracts thus preventing abuses of worker's rights.
Manglore: Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs will launch a web-based attestation system of employment contracts for workers in United Arab Emirates (UAE) next month.
- Vayalar Ravi, Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs and Aviation/ Photo credit: AFP
The new system will help ensure that same documents and job contracts are submitted to authorities on both sides. Through the initiative, the ministry wants to make sure that terms of contracts between an employer and employee are determined before the worker leaves India. With the UAE government already agreeing to the system, the ministry is now looking forward to a similar arrangement with other countries in the Middle East, Vayalar Ravi, minister for overseas Indian affairs, told Times of India.
"The attestation system will be largely beneficial to Indian workforce who land up in the Middle East chasing their dreams of a job, and most of them end up getting cheated by agents and their prospective employers," he said. Web attestation of contracts, Ravi said, would help the ministry enforce contract conditions. Noting that Indian workers often face difficulties in Gulf countries as their contract conditions are changed by their foreign employer, he added that the new attestation system would change the condition.
"There are nearly 7.5 million overseas Indian workers in the Gulf region. They migrate for economic reasons and send back remittances. We will have to support them on their return. We have also tightened the screws on overseas job agents who take unscrupulous youths for a ride. The office of Persons of Indian Origin will attest such job contracts and will ensure that the contractual obligations are adhered to," he said.
