Cases of ‘honeymoon brides’ up in Punjab

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 24

Cases of ‘honeymoon brides’ have been rising among deserted NRI brides in Punjab, says Chetna Soni, in charge of the NRI Cell in the National Commission for Women (NCW). There is also a rise of 100 per cent in complaints from Punjab at the NCW in the past five years from 2014 to 2018.

Soni and KL Sharma, joint secretary of the NCW, were at Panjab University here for a national consultative meet on ‘Economic rehabilitation of women deserted by their NRI husbands’.

According to a leaflet distributed among the participants, the cases of ‘honeymoon brides’ involve those where there is a quick engagement and lavish wedding with a huge dowry and honeymoon, followed by the NRI husband flying out of India while the wife waits for her visa. The wives are not able to see their husbands after the honeymoon.

The other cases include a woman reaching the country of her husband’s residence and waiting at the international airport only to find that her husband wouldn’t turn up at all and false information was provided by the husband regarding his job, immigration status, income, property and marital status.

“It has also been found that NRI husbands obtain ex parte decree of divorce in the foreign country behind women’s back or women being denied maintenance as marriage has been dissolved in the foreign country. Also, in some cases, women go to foreign countries on dependent visa and after marital discord, NRI husbands withdraw the application of visa. In such cases, women have to leave the foreign land,” said Soni.

She said there were cases where women couldn’t bring their children back to India as they had foreign citizenship.

“Not just in Punjab, a large number of cases of NRI husbands deserting their wives have also been found in Kerala, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat,” Soni said.

The NCW has already received 572 complaints in 2018. There were 528 complaints in 2017, 468 in 2016, 422 in 2015 and 425 in 2014.

“If you see the graph, it is rising. These are those cases where women have directly approached the NCW. They also approach the local police, state’s women commission or the External Affairs Ministry,” said Soni. From 2014 to 2018, there has been a rise of 34.6 per cent in the complaints received from across the country at the NCW.

The complaints from Punjab have also risen. In 2014, the NCW received just 37 complaints from women regarding NRI husbands, but the next year the number rose to 41. In 2016, the number of complaints increased to 54. In 2017, there were 53 complaints, but in 2018, 74 complaints have already been received. From 2014 to 2018, there is a rise of 100 per cent in the complaints received from Punjab at the NCW.

“The NRI Cell of the NCW came into existence on September 24, 2009. The job of the NCW’s NRI Cell is direct intervention on receiving such complaints, sensitisation and awareness generation, support for research on significant aspects of the issue and sending recommendations to the government,” said Soni.

The seminar at the PU today dealt with the starting of efforts for the rehabilitation of deserted brides. There were discussions about the role of industries, NGOs and self-financed educational institutions in the rehabilitation of women.

Dr Monica Munjal Singh, chairperson of the Centre for Social Work, and Assistant Professor Dr Gaurav Gaur offered to have a consultation centre on the issue apart from creating awareness through the PU radio.