Shri Vayalar
Ravi Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs called for grater
social awareness about the NRI marriage problems. Inaugurating
the regional workshop on ‘Problems relating to NRI marriages’
in Thiruvanathpuram, he said there is a need for local level
awareness and education campaigns especially empowering women
to address this problem. The Minister said the number of such
cases is increasing and the problem is not confined to Punjab
or Kerala alone. A number of cases are being reported from other
parts of the country from states like Gujarat, Haryana, Delhi,
Maharastra and Andhra Pradesh also. Recently, West Bengal also
joined this list as more than 100 cases had been filed by Indian
women demanding restoration of their marriage annulled by divorce
decrees abroad. The nature and dimension of such incidetes vary
but the central issue is ‘marriages to overseas Indians’.
He pointed
out that at national level, the issue of marriages to overseas
Indians has gained attention due to the growing number of
cases of failed or fraudulent marriages. Marriages to Overseas
Indians are like any other marriages and may go through the
same ups and downs. An important difference however is that
the recourse to justice is constrained by the fact that these
marriages are governed not only by the Indian legal system
but also by the far more complex private international laws
involving the legal system of the other country.
Shri Ravi
further said that most of the cases pertain to women being
abandoned because of various reasons. This may even happen
prior to her going to the country of her husband’s residence.
Sometimes, the women learn after the marriage that the husband
was already married in the other country to another woman,
whom he continued to live with. Realising the legal complexities
involved in the problem, the Ministry has henceforth embarked
on a publicity campaign to create awareness on the issue.
The objective is to educate young women and their families
on their rights and obligations as also to give them guidelines
on what they must check and verify before entering into overseas
alliances. From News@
IndLaw
|
