by Moiz Mannan
The inevitable has just been delayed. Indian workers caught on the wrong side of Saudi Arabia’s workforce nationalisation policy have received another three-month breather thanks to the graciousness of the country.
All that this will do is give the Indian missions, who have worked with great dedication, some more time to handle the rush of returnees. For the workers themselves, displacement is inevitable.
Some countries in West Asia have reacted to the ‘Arab Spring’ by intensifying efforts to tackle unemployment among the nationals. The media has quoted a study by the Saudi Central Department of Statistics and Information, as estimating last year’s unemployment rate in the country at 12.2 per cent. That meant that well over half a million Saudi nationals were without jobs.
Other estimates have suggested that 39 percent of the youth in the 15-25 age group are unemployed. Over the years, the Saudi government has sent thousands of its young people abroad for higher studies, resulting in a heavy demand for more jobs at home, said a report in The Hindu. Yet, for the moment, Indian diplomacy and a goodwill gesture from the Saudi government has afforded a bit of time for the Indian authorities and affected persons to react and adjust.
It is not very long back that, in this space, we had discussed how India was underprepared to effectively deal with rehabilitation and resettlement of semi-skilled workers returning from the Gulf and other destinations.
While the situation might not have changed drastically, one must acknowledge the efforts of certain Indian states, particularly Kerala, in their attempts to at least bring the difficult issue on the agenda. The fact of the matter as it stands is that Kuwait, not Saudi Arabia, is where India’s attention should now be and states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar should be more concerned about returnees than Kerala.
At the time Saudi Arabia ordered extension of the Nitaqat (nationalisation) deadline by four months, some 75,000 applications for exit visas had reportedly been received from expats at the Indian missions in the kingdom. Only 7,000 were from Kerala. The deadline for expatriates without valid work permits to leave the country, which was to expire on July 3, would now be November 4.
As per official figures, only about 3,000 persons have returned to Kerala following the introduction of Nitaqat in Saudi Arabia and tightening of labour rules in Kuwait.
Among the applicants who had requested Emergency Certificates from the Indian embassy in Riyadh and the consulate in Jeddah, the maximum numbers were from Uttar Pradesh (21,331), followed by Andhra Pradesh (8,695), West Bengal (7,913), Tamil Nadu (5,430), Kerala (3,610), Bihar (3035), Rajasthan (2,504) ,Karnataka (1,082), Jammu and Kashmir (906), Maharashtra (766), Assam (710) and Punjab (496).
Now, while Kerala has started to put in place certain definitive measures, the governments of several of the worst affected states appear to be in deep slumber. It is something like the Uttarakhand government’s lack of preparedness for the huge human tragedy that followed last month’s natural disaster in the hills.
In Kerala, the government department looking after diaspora affairs (Norka) and the state-based State Bank of Travancore (SBT) have put forth a scheme under which unskilled and semi-skilled returnees would get non-collateral bank loans up to Rs1.6m for rehabilitation.
The seven-year term loan is offered under a new plan called Swagatham (‘welcome’ in Malayalam) to help the returning Indians to start new ventures in cooperation with Norka.
Bank officials have been quoted as saying that some Gulf returnees had already availed of the scheme in which a bank account or deposit is not a requirement.
The loan with 10 per cent government subsidy and 10 per cent beneficiary participation can be used as the working capital for self-employment projects. According to reports from Kerala, the department is also providing immediate employment in coconut plucking work.
The state has also started distributing financial assistance under the Non-resident Kerlalites’ Welfare Fund Board. There were reports that the board met recently to review proposals on rehabilitation submitted by various agencies and subsequently forward them to the state government.
On its part, the state government too was said to be in the final stages of preparing a composite rehabilitation package for the returnees.
A proposal has also been made to fix a quota and relax age limits in government jobs for those returning from the Gulf countries.
An expert panel headed by Infrastructure Kerala Limited (INKEL) Managing Director
T Balakrishnan, which looked into the challenges of repatriation has submitted the proposal along the lines of similar initiatives earlier by Sri Lanka and Myanmar.
The panel has also recommended that the government should form a database of skilled labour, of which there is a shortage in the state, and set up an employment portal for trade bodies to pick people from the pool to suit their needs.
An interest subsidy has been mooted for starting new ventures.
Other measures such as the government supporting travel agencies formed by returnee drivers or hiring premises owned by returnees are also being
thought of.
Now, while no other state government, particularly those of northern states like UP and Bihar seem to have given much thought to the issue, even the central government’s much-touted pension scheme for NRIs remains a non-starter mainly owing to inaccessibility.
Low income workers have also found the premium expensive.
