BENGALURU: From abandonment or desertion to ill-treatment and physical torture, Indian women abroad continue to suffer bad marriages. In a disturbing trend, cries for help from NRI wives continue to pour in, with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) receiving at least three complaints every day.According to the latest data, the MEA has received 765 complaints in the first 200 days of 2018, which is more than half of the total number of complaints received in 2017 and nearly equals the number from 2015.TOI had reported about the hardships faced by such women earlier, and the government has put in place several measures in the last two years, which some say may also be the reason for more people seeking help.Experts TOI spoke with, lawyers and rights activists reiterated that most of these women are from Punjab and Andhra Pradesh. They attribute this trend to continuing practice of dowry, which sees men marry women from India and later leave them once they return, or harass them for more money.Harassment and ill treatment by the husband and his family and abandonment are among the most common complaints received by the MEA. Analysis of complaints received shows that the number of complaints received in 2015 were 796, which jumped to 1,510 in 2016 to dip to 1,022 in 2017, and the 2018 figure takes the total to 4,093.In september 2017, the government increased the amount of legal and financial assistance to distressed Indian women to $4,000 per case from $3,000. In June 2018 it was mandated that all NRI marriages must be registered within seven days.Just last month, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said that the government will enact a law, ‘Summons and Warrants Against Indian People Living Abroad’ to be used against such men. Also, the government has issued six look out notices against NRI husbands this year.Aarthi Rao, who worked with the Indian embassy in Washington DC for 16 years, had told TOI earlier that most cases relate to dowry.