JEDDAH, 4 January 2004 — Voting rights for non-resident Indians are among the issues the Gulf NRIs want to be taken up at the second Pravasi Bharatiya Divas scheduled to be held in New Delhi next week.

Speaking at an open forum organized by Khaja Quadeer Anwar and Ejaz Khan of Indian Doctors, Engineers and Architects Society (IDEAS) here at Al-Bustan Hotel on Friday, delegates representing almost every state of India said that with voting rights comes empowerment.

Saeed Shaukat of the Hyderabad Overseas Association said Gulf NRIs should push for designation as overseas contract workers (OCWs) rather than as NRIs, since their residence in the Gulf was subject to contract renewal.

His views were echoed by Dr. Manzoor Qazi, who represented Jammu and Kashmir at the meeting. “Our compatriots in the US and other Western countries are the real NRIs because they are also tax-payers,” Dr. Qazi said.

O.P. Raman Kutty, a financial analyst, expressed regret that in spite of the Gulf NRIs’ massive contribution to the country’s economy, their problems were not given enough consideration by those in power.

Dr. Iqbal Musani of the Jedani Group of Hospitals presented a comprehensive proposal to help blue-collar Indian workers in the Kingdom. “They form 70 percent of the Gulf NRIs and their plight is miserable,” he said.

Jamal Qadri of the Urdu Academy said the federal and state governments should look into the rehabilitation of Gulf returnees. “They have absolutely nothing to fall back on when they return home,” he said.

Siyadat Ali Khan and Badr Ansari of the Khak-e-Taiba Trust said while the federal government in New Delhi banked on the Indian community in the Gulf it was slow to offer them access to facilities.

“Our pleas for domicile status for Gulf NRIs have fallen on deaf ears. As a result, our children have to apply for admission to professional courses from the NRI quota by paying exorbitant capitation fees,” they added.

Sultan Mazharuddin, a media consultant, said a scheme similar to the Life Insurance Corporation’s pension scheme for senior citizens in India could be worked out for Indian expatriates in the Gulf as well.