Kodikunnil Suresh, MP, has criticised the Union government in the Lok Sabha over the underutilisation of the Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF), citing official data submitted by the Ministry of External Affairs.
In a statement issued here on Saturday, the Mavelikara MP said that as per the government’s own reply, ₹705 crore remains unutilised in the ICWF corpus as on June 30, 2025, even as Indians abroad continue to face detention, medical emergencies, legal distress and difficulties in repatriation.
“The ICWF was created to provide emergency medical aid, boarding and lodging, legal assistance, air passage, transportation of mortal remains and support to deserted Indian women abroad. While the government States that more than ₹732 crore has been utilised since inception to assist around 3.6 lakh distressed Indians, the existence of such a massive unspent balance exposes the failure of the NDA government to use the fund proactively and humanely,” Mr. Suresh said.
Drastic drop
He said year-wise expenditure data showed a sharp and worrying decline. In 2020, ICWF spending stood at ₹128.98 crore. This dropped drastically to ₹23.27 crore in 2021. In 2022, ₹23.57 crore was spent. Though there was a marginal increase to ₹33.91 crore in 2023, expenditure again fell to ₹21.62 crore in 2024 and further to just ₹12.95 crore in 2025 (up to June).
Category-wise data further exposed misplaced priorities, Mr. Suresh said. Expenditure on boarding and lodging declined from over ₹14.42 crore in 2020 to about ₹5.15 crore in 2025 (till June). Emergency medical care spending dropped sharply from ₹1.14 crore in 2020 to merely ₹13.58 lakh in 2025. Spending on legal assistance, crucial for Indians facing detention and prosecution abroad, remained inconsistent and inadequate. Support for deserted Indian women abroad continues to be negligible, often limited to a few lakh rupees annually, despite rising cases.
The crisis, according to him, was most visible in the Gulf region, home to lakhs of Malayali and Indian migrant workers. Countries including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain routinely witness labour disputes, medical emergencies, detentions and human rights violations involving Indian workers. “Yet ICWF utilisation remains grossly inadequate. In Kuwait, spending declined from ₹25.18 lakh in 2021 to ₹1.72 lakh in 2025. In Qatar (Doha), spending fluctuated between ₹48.60 lakh in 2022, ₹64.77 lakh in 2023 and ₹77.81 lakh in 2025, figures that are disproportionately low considering the scale of migrant distress. In Saudi Arabia (Riyadh), around ₹7.87 crore was spent between 2022 and 2025, which is still insufficient given the magnitude of labour and legal issues faced by Indians there. Several UAE Missions, including Dubai and Abu Dhabi, reported nil or minimal utilisation in multiple years, while Oman and Bahrain also showed limited disbursal,” the Mavelikara MP said.
He said that outside the Gulf, countries with large Indian and Malayali populations, including Canada, the USA, UK and Italy, faced similar neglect.
Published – December 20, 2025 08:33 pm IST
