PATIALA, JUNE 21, 2004
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

A seminar focusing on ills of NRI marriages was organised by the Global Punjab Foundation on Sunday.

Almost all the speakers were of the view that innocent girls were being used by their own family members, who wanted to settle abroad. The sleaziest part is that some people do not hesitate in adopting methods like paper marriages with very close relations just to settle abroad, said foundation general secretary HPS Walia.

An NRI and social activist in Canada Avtar Singh Saran said that NRIs were also facing serious threats in their own country, as cases of contract killings were on the rise. The government should take serious steps for their security, he added.

Bibi Jasbir Kaur Khalsa, chairperson of the Guru Gian Parkash Foundation, New Delhi, said that easy divorce proceedings and effect of Western culture had made exploiting Indian girls easy for NRIs. A mediaperson, Anureet Kaur, said that girls should themselves come forward and refuse such marriages.

Scholar Bhai Ashok Singh Bagriyaan said legal methods should be adopted to stop the exploitation of poor girls in the name of marriages.

Punjabi writer Kulwant Singh Grewal, educationists Satish Verma, Amritpal Kaur and Rajinder Pal Brar, musician Dr Gurnam Singh and actress Sunita Dhir also participated in the discussion.