Indian Ambassador to Kuwait Sunil Jain Indian Ambassador to Kuwait Sunil Jain

KUWAIT: The Indian Embassy in Kuwait hosted a conference at its auditorium on Saturday and discussed several welfare issues concerning the Indian community in Kuwait on the occasion of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) 2016. PBD is celebrated every year in India since 2003 in order to connect India to its vast overseas Diaspora and bring their knowledge, expertise and skills on a common platform. This year, making a paradigm shift in its format, PBD conferences were held at various Indian embassies across the world in which delegates participated and presented proposals on improving the lot of the diaspora.

In his opening remarks, Indian Ambassador Sunil Jain highlighted the achievements of the government and the measures the embassy has taken in solving several issues of the community.

Specifically talking about the issue of unfair practices of recruiting Indian labor from Kuwait, Jain pointed out several improvements. Firstly, he said the India government had put an end to recruitment of female domestic servants to Kuwait. Currently there are about 300,000 Indian domestic helpers in Kuwait.

Nurses

The embassy also signed an agreement with the Kuwait's Ministry of Health streamlining the recruitment of nurses from India through government agencies such as NORKA, ODEPC and OMCL. It was a landmark agreement that has virtually abolished overseas recruitment of nurses by private agencies from April 30, 2015, he said.

In service to citizens in Kuwait, the embassy last year issued 87,083 passports compared to 75,031 showing a growth of 16 percent while 94,363 attestations were done compared to 94,363 in 2014 registering a growth of two percent. The embassy issued 3,923 emergency certificates for repatriation of Indians in 2015 compared to 2,791 in 2014.

The ambassador also noted that there is a 33 percent increase in drug and liquor related crimes by Indians living in Kuwait, which is a worrying factor.

Contracts

Indian companies won several contracts for various projects in Kuwait in the year 2015, the ambassador said. In 2015, Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) has also made substantial investment in India showing the growing confidence of Kuwait in the Indian economy, he pointed out.

Various issues such as streamlining the activities of Indian associations, a platform for hosting Indian cultural events, exorbitant air fares being charged by India's state carriers from passengers from Kuwait were also raised and discussed during the conference.

Reaven D'Souza, Sajeev K Peter, Ashfaque Khan, Mohd Farooq, Sunoj Nambiar, Dr Shansethil, Vibheesh Thikkody, Chaitali Roy, S K Wadhawan, Rajpal Thyagi, Sharafudeen Kanneth, Dr Vinod Grover, Prashanth Nair and Hari Balaramapuram addressed the conference speaking on different issues. Deputy Chief of Mission Subhashish Goldar concluded the event while A K Srivastava coordinated the event.

Representatives of various Indian associations, representing the community attended the event.

PBD is held on 9th of January every year to mark the contribution of overseas Indian community in the development of India.

By Sajeev K Peter