The State is initiating steps to come to the rescue of helpless victims of dubious marriages. State Home and Labour Minister Nayani Narasimha Reddy said on Tuesday that they will consult the Union Ministry to bring in a legislation that will help bring cheating husbands, who are holed up in a foreign land, to justice.
The Minister said that there have been innumerable cases in the State where the husbands took dowry and abandoned or harassed the wife after leaving the country.
With pressure on the local police to book the accused, he said that with a law it would be easier to legally punish such persons.
The Minister was speaking at a conference on ‘Safe Legal Migration, Overseas Employment and Role of Government Agencies, Diaspora: Telangana’ organised by Tomcom (Telangana Overseas Manpower Company Limited).
In his address on the inaugural day, the Minister said that there were 10 lakh migrant workers from Telangana working abroad.
He said that some of the unskilled workers were being exploited due to lack of awareness and Tomcom was helping people leave the country to work in a legal manner. He informed that 750 workers, who were selected in job melas held by Dubai based companies in the State, would leave in batches before the end of year.
Rajiv Trivedi, Principal Secretary, Home said that the State intended to reduce the outward flow of migrants. With irrigation projects worth thousands of crores and new IT and corporate companies setting shop or expanding base in the city, he said they were confident that there will be a “reverse migration” soon. He said that the State has been successful in stopping children from being trafficked for camel races or minor girls from old city getting married to men from Gulf.
The conference was attended by various stakeholders like NRI associations, NGOs, activists and government representatives working on the issues related to migration.
Rebecca Tavares, UN Women Representative for India, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka said that she had heard of many accounts of human rights violations on women migrant workers and there was a need for policies that can protect women.
Technical sessions and panel discussions were held on the subject as part of the day-long conference.
