India bans recruitment of nurses by private agents

KUWAIT: The India government has issued an order yesterday banning overseas recruitment of nurses by private agencies stating that only an authorized government agency can conduct nursing recruitments. The order becomes effective from April 30, 2015.

According to the government order, nursing recruitments to a foreign country from India can be done only through a government agency from respective states. From Kerala, NORKA Roots and Overseas Development and Employment Promotion Council (ODEPC) will be entrusted with the job. Currently, recruitments to Saudi Arabia are done through ODEPC.

The new decision by the India government is expected to put an end to large-scale corruption and cheating by private recruiting agents who recruit nurses from India to various foreign countries including Kuwait after taking huge sums as bribes and commission. Several reports had appeared in local and Indian media recently that agents in Kuwait in collusion with their counterparts in India allegedly take huge sums from candidates ranging from KD 5,000 to KD 12,000 for nursing jobs in Kuwait. Many of the nurses reportedly lost their job after working in Kuwait for a few months.

“Ever since the issue surfaced, we were trying to persuade the Overseas Indian Affairs Ministry in India so that these illegal recruitments would come to an end,” Indian Ambassador Sunil Jain told Kuwait Times yesterday.

The Indian embassy in Kuwait had pressured the Indian government to put an end to this malpractice while the Kerala government requested the center to appoint a nodal government agency to conduct overseas recruitment of nurses from India in order to avoid large-scale corruption and cheating.

“It is a very good decision by the India government. It will benefit both sides in Kuwait and India. 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.