$100 billion remittance by GCC expatriates in five years Kerala politicians start marketing campaign to sell NRK welfare schemes K.Muraleedharan with new welfare card Dubai: June 25, 2002. (keralamonitor.com) A recent trend noticed by the Gulf Malayalis is the presence of various political parties, social organisations, charities and even individuals who have started frequenting the six GCC countries ostensibly to start some form of welfare schemes or insurance programmes to help ordinary Non Resident Keralites. Irrespective of their political ideology, leaders have been visiting various Gulf countries with a humanitarian gesture. The latest to visit the Gulf region are K.Muraleedharan of Congress (Karunakaran group) and E.P.Jayarajan, CPM leader from Kannur. They have met several NRKs in different Gulf countries. They have also visited diplomats and other decision makers for completing their mission.
Congress leader K.Muraleedharan has already started his own insurance scheme and welfare programmes for the NRKs. Muraleedharan, has already floated his own Kerala Pravasi Welfare Association (KPWA) and Pravasi Insurance Scheme in association with National Insurance Company. He has opened a website http://www.pravasimalayalee.com to do e-social service for the NRKs.
Non-Resident Keralites Association (NORKA) has already converted its welfare wing into a corporation and is working on similar welfare schemes to rehabilitate half a million Gulf returnees. The CPM is also considering an umbrella organziation of NRKs -Mankada - to support the NRKs. SNDP leader Vellappalli Nateshan was in the Gulf, talking to various NREs (Non Resident Ezhavazs!) about 'coordinating" their activities with the parent organizations. Ramesh Chennithala, the Youth Congress leader and Member of Parliament from Mavelikkara, was touring the Gulf region to promote NORMA (Non-Resident of Mavelikkara Association!). All these politicians who shed crockodiles tear about the poor NRKs have only one agenda -- how to get a share of the NRK funds.
Ramesh Chennithala --NORMA (l) M.P. Leaders of religious organizations are frequenting the Gulf region with an promise to help the NRKs. If the trend is any indication, each Member of Legislative Assembly or Member of Parliament is likely to visit the Gulf and form NRK welfare associations for their constituency members. Already a number of so-called social organisations are working overtime to help NRKs. Indian Social Clubs and Indian Cultural Centers have been mushrooming all over the Gulf.
Most of these initiatives are intended to fulfill just one motive - how to get hold of the huge resources available with the non resident Keralites. Our petty politicians who have tasted the blood of "fund collection' and "political donations' have realized the potential of funds available with NRKs. By giving pet names like welfare and insurance programmes, these dirty politicians have only one single motive - how to make money in the name of NRK social service. We know the story of leading social figures who have absconded with huge amount of money from the Keralites of Kuwait. We also know the manner in which the so called community leaders and Kerala politicians are "helping' the NRKs.
If these politicians are really interested in NRK welfare, they could help them by reducing the exorbitant airfare between the Gulf countries and India or by exerting pressure on the Indian Government to introduce cheaper means of transportation like passenger ship. They can lobby with the governments and Indian Missions in various Gulf countries to provide better working conditions, ensure workers rights and even control the visa racket flourishing in Kerala.
Is it that these politicians do not know that companies are not paying workers' salary for months, and many ordinary NRKs find it difficult to get proper medical treatment or assistance in some foreign countries. When an NRK finds himself in a difficult situation unable to foot huge hospital bills, no Kerala politician is coming forward to help him. One Malayali worker has been lying unconscious in a hospital bed for more than four years and no social organization or politicians ever volunteered to help him. The Kerala politicians should know that majority of NRKs are ordinary workers, who never get their support in a crisis situation.
Report on Indian Diaspora, which records NRI problems was released recently.
Our leaders talk loudly about global investors meet or NRK Samagamams, spending millions of rupees from tax payers money. Did any of the so called leaders from the Gulf who attend such meetings really know the common NRKs problems? Most of the NRK leaders are interested in knowing how to get one more engineering or medical college in Kerala, how profitably a new hotel project can be implemented or how to start a new tourism project. Kerala politicians who always consider such millionaires as "community leaders" never bother to look into the actual problems facing the vast majority of NRKs. When some commissions visit the Gulf to study NRI problems, these leaders and businessmen surround and lure them to five star hotels and pubs. Instead of visiting the labour camps where the majority of NRKs live, the so called study teams get the feedback from these rich sources and write arm chair reports. Even the left wing leaders who visit the Gulf countries are often found wining and dining with the same coterie of businessmen and social workers. Some of the great marxist leaders are no exception to this general trend. Some of them go and kneel before any NRI businessmen for party fund and election fund.
M.M.Hassan, NORKA Minister Despite their crocodiles tear about NRK welfare and rehabilitation of Gulf returnees, their real motive is crystal clear - how to get a part of the huge amount of hard currency available with the NRKs. Dear NRKs, don't get into their trap. It is better to keep your hard earned money in the bank accounts rather than leaving it in the custody of greedy and untrustworthy politicians or the so-called social leaders in the Gulf.
In the past, a number of dubious Indian companies have duped the NRKs through fake share issues on the stock markets. A number of builders and real estate agents have duped them by selling non-existing buildings and flats. Plantation companies and non banking financial companies have duped them by offering lucrative rate of return. Now it is the turn of Kerala politicians and their so called welfare projects to lure NRKs. Please remember that these politicians never fulfill their election promises. It is difficult to believe that such leaders will fulfill the 'welfare promises' too. With the help of such Pravasi schemes, it is easy for some of the Kerala politicians, engaged in hawala operations and benami business in the Gulf, to convert their black money into white at the cost of NRKs. Did you hear about Rs.360 crores hawala transaction from the Gulf to Kerala? Who is behind it? We all know that our big 'Leaders' belong to the Harischandra family. NRKS, please be beware of them.
$100 billion remittance by GCC expatriates
Expatriate workers in the GCC countries siphoned out nearly $107 billion over the past five years. Saudi Arabia accounted for two-thirds of the money transfers. Capital flight, accounting for nearly. Independent studies by noted Arab economist Henry Azzam showed that cash remittances by more than seven million expatriates in the GCC region totaled $22.7 billion in 2001 and around $22 billion in 2000. Indians and Pakistanis were the biggest remitters, accounting for nearly a third of the total annual transfers.
The corresponding figure was $21.1 billion in 1999, $20.9 billion in 1998 and $20.3 billion in 1997. Yearly remittances from Saudi Arabia averaged around $15 billion during that period while the UAE came second, with an average $3 billion. Average outflows from Kuwait stood is around $2 billion. However, in the case of - Qatar, Bahrain and Oman the annual remittances ranged between $300-900 million a year. These mind boggling amounts are the net transfers by the foreign labour in the GCC through known remittance systems. Their transfers were made through banks, exchange houses and hawala.
Expatriates have dominated the labour market in the GCC, surpassing 90 per cent in some member states despite campaigns to replace them with nationals. One study published in the UAE recently said an average expatriate worker spends less than a third of his salary in the UAE and remits the rest home. Among Indians, Keralites constitute between 70 to 80 per cent of NRIs working in the Gulf. Almost all the banks in Kerala are getting huge amount of NRK remittances from the six GCC countries. BJP has also got its own plans about NRKs. (keralamonitor.com)
