Pravasi Teerth Darshan Yojana

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Pravasi Teerth Darshan Yojana. The features of the Pravasi Teerth Darshan Yojana are:

• Under the scheme, a group of Indian diaspora will be taken on a government-sponsored tour of religious places in India twice a year.
• The first batch of 40 people participated in the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2019 held in Varanasi.
• Those selected would be taken to religious places of all major religions in India.
• The government will bear all the expenses including the airfare from their country of residence.
• People of Indian-origin aged 45 to 65 can apply can avail the benefits under the scheme.
• The Scheme accords first preference to people from Girmitiya countries such as Mauritius, Fiji, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica.

Girmitiya countries

Girmitiya’s are the descendants of indentured Indian labourers brought to Fiji, Mauritius, South Africa, East Africa, the Malay Peninsula, Caribbean and South America (Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname) to work on sugarcane plantations for the prosperity of the European settlers.
The term Girmitiya was coined by the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi who referred to himself as first Girmitiya. The countries where these indentured Indian labourers settled are known as Girmitiya countries.

Month: Current Affairs - January, 2019