President Droupadi Murmu has announced that India had decided to extend the eligibility criteria for obtaining an Overseas Citizen Of India card for Indian-origin immigrants in Suriname from the fourth generation to the sixth generation, marking their importance in the 150-year-old bilateral relationship.
Ms. Murmu made the announcement on June 5 while addressing a gathering at the Independence Square here after witnessing, along with her Suriname counterpart Mr. Chandrikapersad Santokhi, a cultural event on the occasion of the commemoration of 150 years of the arrival of Indians in Suriname.
The first ship — Lalla Rookh — carrying 452 Indian labourers arrived in Suriname’s capital Paramaribo on June 5, 1873. Most of the labourers hailed from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
