Social security net for Indian workers returning home: PM

New Delhi, Jan 8 (PTI) Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh on Friday said the government was conscious about the
adverse effect of economic crisis on Indians employed abroad
and was working on a project to provide social security net
for the workers returning home.
Inaugurating the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, India's
flagship annual event to connect with its diaspora spread
across the globe celebrations here, he said security of
overseas Indian workers and students was a top priority of his
government.
"About 40 per cent of the total remittances of over 50
billion US dollars in 2007-2008 came from skilled and
semi-skilled overseas Indian workers. Many of them have been
badly affected by the economic crisis," Singh noted at the
function.
"We are conscious of the need to structure an
appropriate ‘Return and Resettlement Fund’ and we are working
on a project to provide a social security safety net for the
returning workers," the Prime Minister said.
He said India has been negotiating with countries with
large emigrant Indian populations to improve the welfare and
protection offered to our workers.
Over the last year, India signed labour agreements with
Malaysia, Bahrain and Qatar that create institutional
frameworks to look into issues such as recruitment, terms of
employment and workers’ welfare, Singh pointed out.
"We also signed social security agreements last year
with Switzerland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands and are now
negotiating such agreements with a number of other countries,"
he said. PTI