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Post By Joan

Mandatory Insurance from August 1 for ECR passport holders

• Comments
• 24 Jul 2017
• ECR, ministry of external affairs, emigrants

Insurance is going to be mandatory from 1^st of August 2017 for all ECR (i.e. Emigration Check Required) passport holders who travel to 18 notified countries for employment.

What is ECR passport?

Indian passports are divided into 2 categories, namely Emigration Check Required (ECR) and Emigration Check Not Required (ECNR). Now the passports that are issued before January 2007 are categorized as ECR and those issued later fall under ECNR category.

 Why and how?

The new guideline has been introduced under the scheme of Pravasi Bharatiyan Bima Yojana 2017 by the ministry of external affairs. Post this; Indians registering for emigration clearance should have an insurance policy for accidental death or permanent disability for 2-3 years of minimum period. The applicant who is employed abroad needs be covered for at least 10 lakhs. Once the emigrant gets the policy, s/he can avail the benefits from the same policy even if the employer or the emigrant’s location for that matter changes. The regulation is going to bring a significant change in the insurance sector.    

What will be the impact?

As per statistics, over 6 lakh Indians with ECR passports travel abroad for employment as unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled workers. Indian states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka (about 1.5 lakh workers) have a massive outflow of emigrants both in terms of white and blue-collared jobs out of which hitherto most of the blue-collared workers avoided purchase of insurance policies. However, from now onwards, all the emigrants holding ECR passports whether white or blue-collared, are compelled to have an insurance. 

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(Source and Credits: The Times of India) 

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