Strength in bonding

Thousands of brides — most of them in Punjab — are leading miserable lives after having been deserted by their NRI grooms. Their misery is compounded by the slow pace of police investigations and protracted legal cases. In many instances, the poor abandoned wives have the additional responsibility of bringing up children even as the husbands set up homes abroad with other women, cocking a snook at notices by the Indian authorities, smug with their foreign nationality tag. Over the years, it becomes quite a lonely and uphill battle for the woman as her family members fail her and authorities rebuff her. The struggle of one girl in getting an FIR registered at a police station and the arduous decade-long fight in the court of another represent the forlorn state of each victim of violence, fraud and cheating.

In such a scenario, the coming together in Jalandhar of 33 such NRI brides from across Punjab and jointly fighting — under the Ab Nahi: Abandoned Wives by NRI Husbands Internationally Sanstha — for their rights empowers their fight, giving the individual battles the much-needed muscle. Imagine, if the estimated 32,000 abandoned wives of the state were to demand justice in one voice; it would definitely be loud enough to make the creaking wheels of justice move, spurring the MEA, ministries of home affairs, law and justice, and women and child development, and commissions for women out of their ‘normal’ state of apathy. It might even lead them to introspect about their inaction. 

In this age of social media, the formation of such groupings of affected parties is relatively easy. The case of a bunch of eight feisty deserted NRI wives who bonded on Twitter filing a PIL in the Supreme Court is encouraging. The apex court last month issued notice to the Centre. It raises hope of the framing of rules for the police, immigration services and embassies to ensure aid, compassion and speedy justice for the victims. And, the resultant impoundings of passports and deportations of the fugitive husbands would check this abhorrent practice and help deserted wives.