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New Delhi: Overseas affairs minister Vayalar Ravi on Thursday said the government was in the final stage of establishing a 'Return and Resettlement Fund' that will provide "reasonable level of financial security" to overseas returnees. The fund will be part of a package to protect overseas Indian workers from financial distress when they return home after retirement or job losses. The package would also provide relief to workers who had to return home in the wake of the global economic slowdown, the minister said.
"The ministry is working towards establishing a fund that will provide financial security to those workers who have lost their jobs and have returned home," Ravi said, inaugurating a conference of the Heads of Missions of Gulf countries, Libya, Malaysia, Yemen and Maldives here on Thursday.
A senior official of the ministry said Indian workers in Gulf countries have been the worst-hit by the economic downturn and the scheme will initially be limited to the workers returning from these countries."Our workers in the Gulf are temporary, contractual workers and they spend several years in harsh living and working conditions, remit most of their savings back home and often return in poor health and with no savings. This is the frightening prospect that thousands of workers returning from the Gulf face," the overseas affairs ministry said in a statement later in the day.
The ministry said it was necessary to have an appropriate programme to ensure a reasonable level of financial security on return and to inculcate the practice of thrift for a secure retirement. The proposed Return and Resettlement Fund will provide for a contribution-based scheme to incentivize the return and resettlement of the overseas worker, the statement said.
According to a leading expert in pension policy, a large number of overseas workers spend their savings for improving the lifestyle of their relatives back home. Most of these people would have contributed to the social security schemes in the countries they work, but they do not get the benefit once they come back. The government needs to address this issue, he said.
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