Natives to NRIs: Remit money but don't come home
By siliconindia   |   Friday, 21 August 2009, 23:57 IST   |    3 Comments
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Natives to NRIs: Remit money but don't come home
Bangalore: With the spread of swine flu largely being carried out by NRI's, natives in India are happy just with remittances. It would be mean to tell NRI family members not to come home, but the message to them could well be, 'to remit and not visit,' reports Economic Times. For instance, Kerala is a state where people largely depend on remittances. Since it happens to be school vacation time in many countries like the Middle East and UK (where Keralites abound), expats are flowing into the state for their annual vacation. Also, the first A (H1N1) related casualty in the state happens to be a youth who had until recently been in the Gulf. A significant number of visiting NRIs are suffering from flu. Only a few days back, 43 year old NRI, Pravin Patel became Gujarat's first H1N1 victim. He and his wife Nainaben had landed in Ahmedabad on July 31 for a family reunion. Half a dozen people arriving at the Cochin International Airport on Tuesday were quarantined. According to Anup Warrier, who heads the infectious diseases department at the Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences, the government of India directive to avoid unnecessary travel is particularly valid for Kerala. "Recreational and entertainment related travel should be curbed, because the possibility of being exposed to the disease gets higher as the number of affected persons increases," said Dr. Warrier. Mathew Parakkal, a former Professor of medicine, says that it is not practical to prevent NRIs from visiting their near and dear ones, adding that life can carry on with the necessary precautions. He, however, warns that the possibility of the spread of the disease is considerably higher in India, considering the "high density of population in the metros, poor sanitary conditions and low education levels". Remittances have been so upbeat in recent years that any setback to NRIs will have a significant effect on home budgets in Kerala. According to Y Sudhir Kumar Shetty, COO for global operations of the UAE Exchange, the period 2004-06 was one of exceptional growth when there was a 34 percent year-on-year growth in remittances. The figure dropped to about 22-25 percent, which is also considered a healthy level.

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