India To Get A New Emigration Policy To Replace The One Framed By Indira Gandhi Government In 1983

The Narendra Modi government is currently working on a new emigration policy for the country to replace the one introduced by the Indira Gandhi government in the year 1983, a report in the Hindustan Times says.

According to Dnyaneshwar Mulay, secretary, ministry of external affairs and overseas Indian affairs, " conditions globally have changed significantly” since 1983 and the old policy needs to be updated accordingly.

“The current policy of emigration enacted by the government of India is very old and needs to be reworked. Since 1983, the conditions globally have changed significantly. There are many areas where many new things have emerged from the time the earlier policy was drafted,” the official was quoted as saying.

However, he noted, the current processes have already moved “ahead of the act” and refused to give the estimated time of completion of the new draft.

According to Nikhil Varma, a practising advocate in the Supreme Court and a co-owner of a Delhi-based law firm quoted in the Hindustan Times report, shortcomings of the policy include loopholes which allow people to emigrate by bypassing the clearance process and lack oversight on protector-generals.

The policy currently in place also does not differentiate between regular and irregular emigrants, he says, citing the example of 39 Indian workers in Iraq who were kidnapped by terror group Islamic State in 2014.