Govt to set up fund for Indians losing jobs in Gulf countries

Alarmed at reports of a large number of workers returning home from the Gulf countries due to the ongoing global economic slowdown, the Ministry of Overseas Affairs is planning a long-term social security fund that will be launched on April 1 to address the needs of such people.

The fund will be overseen and put together by the ministry and Indians working in the Gulf countries in a unique mechanism never tried in India before.

However, the government’s biggest problem in fleshing out the fund is that there is no official estimate of how many people are returning every week.

According to unofficial estimates, 100 to 150 people are coming back to Kerala from the Gulf countries every week. “No two sets of figures available seem to agree. We are now getting a study done on the number of those returning to give us a picture in a month,” said K Mohandas, secretary in the ministry.

“The levels of those coming back are not alarming. Only those whose contracts have expired are coming back,” he said.

However, the government is not taking any chances. Last week, the ministry called a meeting with airline companies and related government departments, besides think-tanks like the Kerala-based Centre for Development Studies (CDS), to discuss the impact of recession on Indians working in the Gulf countries.

Those who attended the meeting said the participants could not spot any alarming trend in numbers of people returning. “Every year, 30 per cent of those who go to the Gulf return,” said Mohandas.

Rajan Eradaya of CDS said a study by his centre found the number of people returning from the Gulf increased in 2008. “But we cannot arrive at any conclusion based on that,” he added.

He said the monitoring should be continued this year also to get a correct picture.

Meanwhile, the Kerala government’s Department on Non Resident Keralites (NORKA) says that it has no data on the number of those returning from the Gulf. “We are not aware of anyone being retrenched in the Gulf and coming back. Nor has anyone approached us for help,” said Sheela Thomas, secretary, NORKA.

The government has already launched a welfare fund on January 1, which would provide Indian missions in the Gulf the money to take care of urgent requirements of the Indians working there.