Diaspora Empowerment and Engagement

In response to persistent demands for "dual citizenship" particularly from the Diaspora in North America and other developed countries and keeping in view the Government's deep commitment towards fulfilling the aspirations and expectations of Overseas Indians, the Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) Scheme was introduced by amending the Citizenship Act, 1955 in August 2005. The Scheme was launched during the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas convention 2006 at Hyderabad.

Know India Programme of the Ministry is a three-week orientation programme for diaspora youth conducted with a view to promote awareness on different facets of life in India and the progress made by the country in various fields e.g. economic, industrial, education, Science & Technology, Communication & Information Technology, culture. KIP provide a unique forum for students & young professionals of Indian origin to visit India, share their views, expectations & experiences and to develop closer bonds with the contemporary India.

Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) is celebrated on 9th January every year to mark the contribution of Overseas Indian community in the development of India. January 9 was chosen as the day to celebrate this occasion since it was on this day in 1915 that Mahatma Gandhi, returned to India from South Africa, led India’s freedom struggle and changed the lives of Indians forever.

The Indian government, tasked a High Level Committee on the Indian Diaspora to analyze the location, situation and potential development role of the estimated 20 million non-resident Indians (NRI's) and Persons of Indian Origin (PIO's).

The information resulting from this two-year exercise led to a new direction in diaspora policy, including the creation of a Ministry for Overseas Indian Affairs in 2004.

The French Co-development program introduces the idea of “supporting initiatives by young people of immigrant origin”, a policy that enables youth associations of immigrant descent and youth associations in the parents’ countries of origin to be co-financed for socio-cultural activities that are deployed on both territories.

These projects should foster citizenship and socio-economic integration in France, and contribute to development initiatives in the regions of departure.

The overall objective of MIDA (Migration for Development in Africa) is to assist African governments to achieve their development goals through the creation and strengthening of sustainable links between migrants and their countries of origin.

MIDA focuses on the circulation of competencies, expertise and experience of the Diasporas, without jeopardizing their legal status in their host countries or newly adopted home countries.

The Ghanaian government passed the bill granting dual citizenship for Ghanaians living abroad in 2000 and voting rights in 2006. 

This program intends to create concrete links between the country and the diaspora. The community which is organized outside the country is involved in a program of reading, writing, through volunteers who come from outside the country. They come to El Salvador to teach the communities in which they usually live to read and write. ne of the primary goals of the Literacy Program is to reduce the level of illiteracy from a rate of 18% in 2009 to 4% by 2014. This would put El Salvador on par with Costa Rica as having one the highest literacy rates in Central America. 

Canada’s International Development Agency (CIDA) uses a number of techniques to mobilize diaspora groups for development in their countries of origin. It directly funds development projects executed by diaspora groups with experience in implementing development projects, such as the Association of Haitian-Canadian Engineers and Scientists.

Since many diaspora groups do not have relevant experience, however, CIDA has created tripartite partnerships among diaspora organizations, Canadian development NGOs and NGOs in the countries of origin.

The idea of Health Portals is to make it easier for people to get health services, and also to create an awareness about public health. They also do vaccination campaigns. These health portals are done together with private health and public health agencies in the US.