Waking up to the distress of the 30,000 women who have been abandoned by their husbands post marriage, the Overseas Affairs and the Woman and Child Welfare ministries are working on certain measures which would pre-empt such marriages of ill-intent from occurring.

Rough statistics indicate that of every 10 NRI marriages in India, two are a sham. To prevent such truant behaviour, the government is considering certain options.

For one, all new passports may be required to carry the marital status of the holder with details of the place and date of marriage. Accordingly, the Passport Act would have to be amended to accommodate this information.The Ministry of External Affairs is likely to be consulted on this.

Secondly, since most of the cases are reported from the US and UK, the Indian Government proposes to seek information on the marital status of NRIs from these governments from their visas.

Thirdly, though wary of taking this move, the government may make registration of marriages obligatory. Consultation with the MEA on an extradition treaty with other countries to help sort out marriage-related cases is also under consideration.

Some pro-active steps by the government would bring NRI marriages under scrutiny. These could be compulsory registration of NRI marriages, bilateral agreements between India and other countries having a sizeable Indian population, a government initiated reconciliation process, and counseling of affected wives by NRIs.

It is interesting to note that of the 30,000 women abandoned through NRI marriages, 15,000 cases have been reported from the Doaba of Punjab, with a high concentration in Jalandhar. Of these, only 117 cases have been registered. The figures could be much higher in reality, as several cases are not reported, and some are settled between families

The National Council for Women has a helpline on the Internet for affected women, and it is presently addressing 20 of these.

Affected families have welcomed the government's rescue mission for these women.

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