Indians working overseas sent home USD 69 billion as remittances in 2017*. Not only does that account for 2.77% of the country’s GDP**, it places India on top of the list of countries receiving remittances from its diaspora across the globe. While this is interesting, what is more interesting is the story behind every remittance. These are stories of Hope, Happiness, and Promise.
One such story is that of Sunita, a chartered accountant, who moved from Mumbai to Melbourne to pursue her career dreams. Leaving her parents and her brother behind was a tough decision since her father had retired and Sunita was the only earning member of the family. However, Sunita could not let go of the opportunity to work in Australia. So while leaving for Australia, she made her family a promise – “I might be far away but I will always be there for you.” Sunita makes it a point to save a fixed sum of money post her expenses to send back home. She regularly sends money home for household expenses, her parent’s health insurance and for her brother’s university tuition fees.
Ganpat Rao, a farmer in Bolepali village of Maharashtra, too is a happy recipient of one such promise. The farmer was struggling with the meagre yield and even lower purchase price for his crops. Every year the situation only got worse. Inspite of the hardships, Ganpat Rao ensured that his son, Bhale Rao got a decent education. He didn’t want his son to be a farmer and suffer the same fate. Ganpat Rao had to borrow money to fund his son’s education. Bhale Rao, being a witness to his father’s struggle to get him a university degree, put his studies to good use. Bhale landed a job in Sydney as a software developer. When he was leaving for Sydney, he made a promise to his father – “Baba, I will repay your loans and make sure you will never have to borrow money again.” Bhale keeps his promise by sending money to his father regularly through Remit2India to manage the household and farm expenses. Ganpat Rao’s loans were all repaid by his son and he didn’t have to borrow money ever again. The son lived up to his promise and continues to do so.
Promises like these – big and small – add up to $69+ billion dollars in remittances each year. Millions of NRIs use various remittance services to send money back home and Remit2India is one such provider. One of the leading providers of remittance services since 17 years, Remit2India has been helping NRIs keep up to their promises with fee-free instant money transfer service from Australia to India.
*World Bank report dated April 2018.
** World Bank report 2016 – Remittances as percentage of GDP.