Centre in dark over size of Indian diaspora

The government does not know how big Indian diaspora is and it is not in favour of launching a study to find out its exact size either.

The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs has told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs that a study to assess the size of the Indian diaspora “may neither be feasible, nor affordable”.

The parliamentary panel, however, was not convinced and asked the ministry to compile an authentic database of Indian diaspora within three months.

“If other countries having larger overseas diaspora have successfully compiled similar data, then why can’t we take similar initiatives to prepare an authentic database for Indian diaspora?” the committee on External Affairs asked in its latest report.

The panel in an earlier report cited the example of how the US and China successfully made near accurate estimates of the numbers of people of American and Chinese descent living in other countries.

It has now also argued that the MoIA’s programmes and policy decisions would certainly fall short of the expected results without an authentic database with near-exact figures about the size of Indian diaspora.

The government in August 2000 constituted the “High Level Committee on Indian Diaspora” with eminent jurist L M Singhvi as its chairman. The committee in its December 2001 report to the government estimated the size of the Indian diaspora to be over 20 million.

The MoIA, which came into being in 2004, last year told the panel that Indian high commissions and embassies abroad had a couple of years ago estimated the size of the Indian diaspora spread over altogether 189 countries to be about 21.6 million. The government, however, for all practical purposes, presumed the size of the diaspora to be about 25 million, it added.

The ministry also conveyed to the panel that while the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) estimate it to be 40 million, another international report had put it at 30 million.

In response to the earlier recommendation of the panel to estimate the precise size of Indian diaspora, the MoIA said that it might not be feasible to compile an exact database, due to the “sensitiveness” of both People of Indian Origin or PIOs and the countries they live now.

The ministry argued that the estimates of the Indian missions abroad about the number of PIOs are “sufficient as inputs” for framing the policies of the government. The panel, however, rejected the argument and reiterated that the MoIA should find out the exact size of the Indian diaspora within three months. Latha Varadarajan, an associate professor of political science at San Diego State University, US, however, agreed with the MoIA.

“I believe that a census organised by a home-state to collate data across numerous other countries would be an immensely expensive and time-consuming task,” she told Deccan Herald. 

“Most countries base their official estimate of the size of their diasporas on the census data collected by the host countries,” added Varadarajan, who extensively studied the State-diaspora relations worldwide.