CHENNAI: The central government has issued an order banning overseas recruitment of nurses by private agencies.
The government order, which will come into effect on April 30, has stated that only an authorized government agency can conduct nursing recruitments.
According to the GO issued on Wednesday, nursing recruitments to a foreign country from India can be done only through a government agency from respective states.
NORKA Roots and the Overseas Development and Employment Promotion Council (ODEPC) will be entrusted with the job in Kerala. Currently, recruitments to Saudi Arabia are done through the ODEPC.
The decision by the central government is expected to put an end to large-scale corruption and cheating by private agencies who recruit nurses from India to various foreign countries, including all the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, after taking huge sums as bribes and commission.
Agents in Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain allegedly take huge sums from job aspirants in collusion with their counterparts in India. Many nurses recruited by private agents lost their jobs after a few months.
Speaking to TOI over phone, the Indian ambassador to Kuwait, Sunil Jain, said: "Ever since the issue surfaced, we were trying to persuade the overseas Indian affairs ministry to ban recruitment by private agencies. The poor nurses were shelling out thousands of rupees to these unscrupulous agents who exploited them.''
The Indian embassy in Kuwait had requested the Centre to put an end to this malpractice. The Kerala government had requested the Centre to appoint a nodal government agency to conduct overseas recruitment of nurses from India to avoid large-scale corruption and cheating.
"It is a very good decision by the government. We hope that from now on these women don't pay a single penny to get a job in Kuwait and recruitments will become transparent and corruption-free," Jain added.
Welcoming the move, Indian consul general in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) B S Mubarak said, "It is a step in the right direction and it will safeguard the interest of nurses who seek a better future abroad. It will put an end to middlemen who exploit these poor women.''
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