IANS

New Delhi, Sep 8: Emigration from India to the Gulf has fallen 30 percent with the global meltdown hitting the job market in West Asia, the government said Tuesday.

"Emigration to Gulf has come down by about 30 percent due to economic recession," said the official data presented by the overseas Indian affairs ministry at the two-day consultation meeting with state governments that began here Tuesday.

However, the government said India still remained a major source of manpower for the international labour market, and that emigration of skilled and semi-skilled workers was increasing consistently.

According to the ministry, while the number of semi-skilled emigrants stood at 368,000 in 2002, it touched 840,000 last year.

Earlier, inaugurating the consultation meeting, Overseas Indian Affairs Secretary K. Mohandas said bulk of the activities related to the ministry should take place at the state-level.

"There should be a nodal department for welfare of overseas Indians in all states," Mohandas said. The nodal department would oversee legal migration from the states.

The consultation meeting would also discuss promotion of overseas employment opportunities by the state governments, skill upgrade and pre-departure orientation training, creation of database of skilled manpower, and action against unregistered recruiting agents and travel agents.

Mohandas said a large number of people migrating to other countries are not adequately skilled. "It creates a bad image about India. So, skill development is very important."