[Bahrain] 95pc Gulf NRIs return to poverty says survey

from Trade Arabia

Only five per cent of Indians working in Bahrain and the Gulf can manage a comfortable life when they return to their homeland, a survey has revealed.

A lack of guidance on saving money means economic migrants toil for years in foreign countries to send money home to their families. But when they return after years of enduring long working hours, poor pay and cramped living conditions, they find families have squandered the cash and quickly return to poverty, the survey by Pravasi Bandhu Welfare Trust said.

High unemployment forces millions of Indians leave their homeland in search of job opportunities abroad. There are more than 150,000 Indians in Bahrain, of which 75 per cent are from Kerala.

They include many non-skilled and semi-skilled who are employed as drivers, household workers and in the construction industry. Another 1.3 million work in the neighbouring UAE and 1.75 million in Saudi Arabia.

The Pravasi Bandhu Welfare Trust is now calling on the Indian government to set up an insurance and compulsory savings scheme to prevent workers returning home to poverty.

It interviewed 10,100 Indians working in the six GCC countries to collect its findings.

The organisation found only two per cent of Indian economic migrants working in the GCC were able to save money and 95 per cent had no lifestyle when they returned home.

"These people are sacrificing everything for a better life for their family," Pravasi Bandhu Welfare Trust Sharjah-based chairman Karappam Shamsudheen said.

"There are people who have lived abroad for more than one or two decades and many of them only get to see their family once every two or three years. They get a loan to go back home and another loan to return to work abroad. It is a vicious cycle."

"Most of them are below the age of 30 and married with at least two children. The Indians are a very close-knit family so when they work they do it for their brothers, sisters and uncles, not just for their wives and children. Many people lose their job and when they go back home they find it very difficult and they cannot even pay for the house their money has built."

"In areas like Kerala the unemployment rate is 30 per cent and 90 per cent of the people that go home cannot get any work and many of them are sick."

The welfare trust has organised training classes to teach Indians about saving money and goal setting and has helped 12,000 people working throughout the GCC.

Shamsudheen hopes education will lead to the situation improving. "When they go back many of them do not get any real affection from their families, as their children are growing up without them and are entirely different people," he said.