New Delhi, Dec. 4: India has decided to become a member of the Hague Conference on Private International Law — which works towards unification of rules governing marriage, divorce, adoption and other related matters — in view of the increase in problems arising out of marriages involving NRIs.

Overseas Indian affairs minister Vayalar Ravi said on Saturday that India was soon expected to become a member of the conference, which had adopted several conventions which were of “immediate relevance to us”.

Talking at an internat-ional conference on private international law, Ravi said the government was aware of the legal problems faced by those married to overseas Indians.

Pointing to “limping marriages”, he said even after a marriage stood dissolved in one country, it survived in another country and marital rights could be enforced according to local laws there.

The minister said his department was giving utmost importance to finding legal solutions to tackle such situations. Such problems arose because of non-availability of a mechanism to serve summons outside India and record evidence abroad.

Ravi said there was a need to take recourse to private international law to deal with disputes in which one of the parties resided outside the country.

The government had recently signed a convention on recognition of decrees relating to adoption by member- countries, the minister added.

Highlighting the seriousness of the problem, the chairperson of the National Commission for Women, Girija Vyas, called for a strong law to tackle the “cross-border problem”.

Despite international law and declarations, women were suffering, Vyas said. There was a need for governments and civil society to come together to work out a solution, she added.