JASWANT SINGH GANDAM & RAMAN NEHRA
PHAGWARA: Virtually shaming governments for celebrating International Women’S Day, hundreds of wives abandoned by their NRI husbands, staged a protest in front of Regional Passport Office (RPO) Jalandhar, on March 8, observed as International Women’s Day, to protest inaction against their betraying husbands, alleging that FIRs, passport impoundment were stuck in red tape.
Led by Satwinder Kaur Satti, President of Ab Nahi Social Welfare Society, an umbrella organization for abandoned wives, hundreds of ditched women first assembled in Desh Bhagat Yadgar Hall and then took out a protest march up to the RPO for submitting a memorandum to demand impounding of passports of betraying husbands.
Protesters, supported by their children and parents, sported placards and banners with slogans of “Call my husband back from USA/UK/Canada/Italy/Dubai/Kuwait “.
A girl held a placard with an impassioned plea inscribed on it: “My dad, please come back to India.”
Some placards demanded protection for abandoned wives and effective law provisioning share in in-laws’ property.
Claiming that there are 32,000 abandoned women in Punjab, ranging from 22 to 63 years of age, with several having grown-up children, Satti alleged lack of any action by RPO Jalandhar against the “thug” husbands.
“While Chandigarh and Amritsar offices have started action against offenders, the Jalandhar office has done precious little”, she rued.
“The police are slow in registering FIRs and in majority of the cases, victims are harassed and pressed for documentation. The passports of all the 32,000 men should be impounded. Women have spent 20 to 40 years waiting for their truant husbands. We are a poorly- resourced body. In many cases, women hardly make both ends meet. When they demand registration of FIRs or impoundment of passports of offenders, they are asked to present documents in order to delay or hold up the process.”
Sati said that after they had put up pressure on the Ministry of External Affairs and Women and Child Development, RPOs at Chandigarh and Amritsar sped up action but Jalandhar is yet to respond.
Though a Jalandhar official assured them of action against offenders, Satti warned of a dharna outside it if action was not initiated forthwith.
Narrating a tale of waiting woes, Satti presented 63-year-old Pritam Kaur waiting for justice for the last over 40 years.
Married to a Canada-based NRI husband in 1977, Pritam Kaur was abandoned in 1982 by her husband who got married to her sister-in-law only to abandon the second wife for marrying and settling with a third one!
Aman, 24, was left in the lurch by her Italy-based husband.
Canada figured at the top in cases of betraying NRI husbands.
Satti bemoaned the fact that abandoned wives were in miserable condition both mentally and economically as neither their in-laws nor government was giving them any wherewithal for sustaining themselves and their children nor any action was being taken against the offenders.
“What sort of ‘jashans’(celebrations) were being held on International Women Day when thousands of abandoned women and their children are roaming from pillar to post for seeking justice?” she asked.
“Punjab has become hub of abandoned wives and holiday weddings ”,she rued.
Satti pleaded for both a solid law and societal support for saving ‘Punjab dian dhiyan’ (daughters of Punjab) from ‘dhokha’(deceit) by abandoning NRI men.
Thank You For Your Vote!
Sorry You have Already Voted!
