Dubai: Inability to pay regular instalments is one of the main reasons that prevent low-income Indian workers in the UAE from subscribing to the Indian pension plan.
According to Vayalar Ravi, Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs, only 90 overseas Indian workers out of 5 million in 17 countries have opted for the pension plan.
“I earn a monthly salary of Dh750. Most of the salary is spent on meeting family requirements back home in India. From where do you think I will get the amount to pay the instalment”” said 22-year-old Ubys Abdul Rahman who works as a supermarket delivery boy.
The Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Suraksha Yojgana was launched by the Indian government in April 2012 for 5 million overseas Indian workers holding Emigration Clearance Required (ECR) category passports. In other words, those who have not passed grade 10 will be eligible to reap the benefits of the scheme.
Workers in UAE who plan to subscribe to this scheme in the UAE are required to pay a minimum of Dh30 to Dh40 in monthly instalments.
“I have not heard about the scheme and I don’t think that I will go for it. I don’t know if I can keep my job. How do you expect me to join something like this? I don’t want to be running from pillar to post to get my money back,” said Govind Das, a blue collar worker.
Shoaib Mohammad, who works in a supermarket and earns a Dh1,300 monthly salary, said but he too was not keen on subscribing to the scheme.
He said: “I heard about the scheme in the media. The Malayalam radio channels keep talking about it but I am not interested. There is no job guarantee.”
Nanu, who preferred to be called by his first name, works as a watchman and is aware of the scheme but is unable to subscribe for lack of information.
“I need to be present 24 hours in the building. I don’t know about the details of the scheme. I am sure that the government of India has launched the scheme for the welfare of the low-income workers. But what they need to do is to make it easy for people like to me to avail of it,” said Nanu.
Calling the pension scheme an excellent product, K.V. Shamsudeen, of the Pravasi Bandhu Welfare Trust, Dubai, said that the need of the hour is to market the product well. “The awareness campaign needs to be intensified. Secondly, it is only for people with ECR stamped on their passports. These categories of people are not educated. It is hard to convince them.”
A senior official from Bank of Baroda, which is responsible for facilitating the scheme, told Gulf News that there are over 500 scheme subscribers but the problem arises when it comes to paying the monthly instalment.
Sanjay Joshi, senior manager, zonal marketing department, Bank of Baroda, said: “The bank receives quite a number of enquiries from workers who want to know about the programme. I receive five to six telephone calls every day. We are following up with all our subscribers but the problem is some of them have gone back to India, while there are those whose contact numbers are not working. Then there are those workers whose labour accommodation location has changed.”
He said that the bank, along with the Indian diplomatic missions in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, plans to hold awareness camps every week in different labour accommodations.
