$69 billion worth of promises come home

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 New York 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 New York. So while leaving for New York, 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. In spite 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 his 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 California as a software developer. When he was leaving for California, 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. Finally, there’s the promise Naina made to herself. She was forced to leave her two young kids, Rony and Maira with her sister in Kanpur as she headed out to San Francisco to work in a hospital as a nurse. She promised herself that she will ensure that her kids would not lack anything. So when Maira was selected for the Table Tennis state championship, Naina ensured that her daughter gets trained under the best coach. She transferred Rs. 25,000 instantly through Remit2India and made sure distances never came in the way of keeping her promises. 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 a million NRIs keep up to their promises with fee-free instant money transfer service to India. Such a promise was made by Virat’s NRI cousin Viju 20 years ago, and he still keeps that promise. Click the link below and watch the video to know what that promise was.

This is a partnered post.