India is working on several fronts to curb the menace of Non-resident Indians marrying women in their ancestral homelands and then abandoning them.

Chief among the proposals being looked at is the mandatory registration of all marriages in India.

India also wants all women to declare their marital status on their passport. This they believe will give the women some kind of legal documentation in the event they are abandoned abroad.

It is also looking at asking visa applicants to India especially from Canada, the U.S. and the United Kingdom to state their marital status and having that attached in their passports.

The moves coming in the wake of a burgeoning cultural scandal that  involves NRIs or non-resident Indians who return to their homeland to get married and hunt for dowries.

In many of the cases the wives are deserted after being promised new lives overseas.

Official studies in India say that some 30,000 women in India have been left behind by their overseas-based husbands, referred to as Non-Resident Indians.

The Asian Pacific Post and more recently, The Province newspaper in Vancouver have highlighted the plight of Punjab‘s abandoned brides. (See “Where have our husbands gone?” Oct 21, 2004)

India had earlier announced that as part of its plans to aid abandoned brides at home and abroad, it would create “special cells” in Canada and other “locations that have a significant Indian population.

The cells and their officers will help conduct checks prospective grooms, and ensure abandoned brides receive legal and medical aid in India or abroad.

In January, New Delhi’s Union Ministry for NRI Affairs launched an educational campaign listing precautions women should take when considering marriage proposals from abroad, as well as outlining their rights under Indian law.

The most recent proposals of stamping women’s passports and visa applications were discussed at a recent meeting between Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi and Minister of State for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury, an official said, according to the Press Trust of India.

“When the marital status is mentioned on the passport it will provide documentary evidence to check the status,” the official explained.

The two Ministries also agreed on the need for a review of treaties with especially countries such as Canada, US and the UK to ensure that NRI men guilty of deserting or duping their Indian wives are dealt with under Indian Laws.

“Irrespective of the citizenship that they have acquired, these men should be recalled to be tried under Indian laws,” the official said.

Simran Khanna of the BC-based Canadian Marriage Fraud Victim Society lauded the efforts by the Indian government but said it is changes in Canada that will put an end to the fake marriage scams.

The society’s petition urging the federal government to change the Immigration Act to fight marriage fraud has been signed by more than 20,000 Canadians.

The society is calling for a three-year probationary period, during which couples must live together, before foreign spouses can be granted permanent residency. It also wants the law in which Canadians are held liable under B.C.’s sponsorship default recovery program changed.

“First, deport any immigrant involved in a sham marriage. Second, eliminate the law that makes sham-marriage victims responsible for their spouses’ finances,” said Khanna

It is not only men who are abandoning their brides said local activist Krishen Baxter,

“We are dealing with people who are disappearing from airport. And we have so many victims, including many men,” he said.