TimesAsiaNews.com | Tens of thousands of Indian women have been left behind by husbands working abroad, according to officials and activists. Many of them have been subjected to outright deceit.
Forwarding The New York Times page on Wednesday, June 14, 2022, to timesasianews.com, our correspondent spoke to 12 women who described a troubling pattern. The situation, they said, often plays out like this: Parents arrange to marry their daughter off to an Indian returning from a job overseas. They pay a dowry and cover the cost of a lavish wedding followed by a honeymoon.
The husband then flies out of the country, and the wife waits for a visa while living with her in-laws. The in-laws demand money to secure the visa, but it never arrives. The wife, who is often illiterate, is kept under constant surveillance.
A widespread problem: A former judge who headed a commission looking into the issue in Punjab said there were 30,000 such cases in that state alone. While there are few legal remedies available in these situations, eight women have filed a petition with the Supreme Court to press India to enact policies that address their plight.(tnyts/tans)
