For most Punjabi NRIs, charity is God’s work
Friday, 04/12/2015
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CHANDIGARH: A report on international migration from Punjab suggests that a fifth of the emigrant households have contributed to philanthropic activity in the five years leading to the survey but to religious services largely.
Gathered by the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID), Chandigarh, and Institut National d’Études Démographiques, Paris, and released on Thursday during a seminar here, the data indicate that members of about 94% of the eligible households preferred to participate in faithbased services. Compared with religious philanthropy, charitable educational interventions are not well spread.
Among all faiths, Sikhs are more likely than Hindus to do charity in home society. Talking about Punjabi emigrants’ contribution to philanthropy, CRRID professor Aswini Kumar Nanda, who supervised the conducting of the sample survey, said: “Commitment to philanthropic practices indicates variations across socio-economic lines and point to the determining role of affluence or the capacity to pay. Philanthropist zeal is highest among households with large landholdings, where almost 40% have this history. Likewise, higher is the standard of living, greater is the probability that migrants will sponsor or contribute to a philanthropic cause.”
REMITTANCES
About one-tenth of all the surveyed households in Punjab had received remittances at some point of time. Among the three regions, Doaba reports higher incidence of remittance receipts (21%). Sikh households (11%) and OBC families (14%) also are ahead of Hindu (7%), Scheduled Caste (6%) and general-category households (11%) in this comparison.
About 9% of the eligible households in the state reported sending remittances abroad. Highest rates of reverse remittance were recorded among the households with large landholding, followed by households with highest standard of living (14%), and households in Malwa region and general castes.
