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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Help Wanted by Minu Ittyipe

Help Wanted by Minu Ittyipe

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published Published on Jan 15, 2012   modified Modified on Jan 15, 2012

Labour-starved Kerala looks to the east

It’s Their Gulf

    There’s an influx of labour into Kerala from Orissa, Assam, Jharkhand and Bengal
    Migrants work in building and road construction, plywood industry, brick kilns and in hotels
    Skilled workers can earn Rs 500-700 a day
    Researchers estimate there are 10 lakh outsiders working in Kerala. No official figures exist.

***

On Sundays, the Gandhi Bazaar in Perumbavoor, a small town in Kerala near Kochi, brims over with migrant workers from India’s east. It’s a meeting place and they congregate here with the week’s wages. Makeshift stalls spill out on to the road as the people throng to buy clothes, Bengali beedis and other stuff from back home or simply hang out. An Oriya bhajan in a CD shop competes with Assamese singer Akashdeep in another store. Tucked away in a corner, Rihaj, from Orissa, runs a tailoring shop while City Hotel serves biriyani and Bengali sweets. In fact, Gandhi Bazaar is often referred to as Bhai bazaar or Bengali bazaar.

Ajis Khan, 22, a mechanic from Assam, turns entrepreneur on Sundays. He does brisk business selling watermelon juice. Noor, from Jalangi on the West Bengal-Bangladesh border, manages to send around Rs 5,000 home monthly. He says, in flawless Malayalam, “I love it here. Everyone in my village says Kerala is the best place in India.” Like him, many youths from the villages of Orissa, Assam, Jharkhand have migrated to Kerala.

They work in the plywood industry, in construction, hotels, brick kilns and plastic manufacturing firms. Kerala has become to these workers from the east what the Gulf is to the Malayali. Says N. Ajith Kumar, director of the Centre for Socio-economic & Environmental Studies, who did a study on them in November 2011, “Traditionally, we have had Tamil labourers—but no longer, because of jobs and better wages back home.” Researchers like Ajith say 10 lakh or more migrants work in Kerala but there are no official statistics to prove this.

For years, Kerala has exported manpower—some estimates say 20 lakh Malayalis work abroad and another 10 lakh in different parts of India. Ironically, today the state is desperately seeking people in every industry. Speaking for the hotel industry, GM of Kochi’s Casino Hotel, Erine Louis, says, “In the last decade, 10-12 five-star hotels have sprung up in Kochi alone. The Malayali looks at local employment only as a training period before he sets off abroad.” The shortage is so acute, a small industrial town like Perumbavoor is totally dependent on migrant workers. Sister Merin, coordinator at the Migrant Workers Movement, says they number at least 2 lakh in Perumbavoor. “Today they work here but tomorrow they could be in Wayanad... wherever they are offered higher wages.”

The migrants are usually male, between 18-24 and though paid less than the locals earn, it’s double or triple of what wages are back home. A skilled worker like a mason or carpenter can earn anywhere between Rs 500-700 a day. The trade unions too have not resisted their entry. Says P.S. Mohanan, CITU Ernakulam district committee secretary, “It’s extremely difficult to get workers here, that’s why the migrants have come in.”

Under the Inter-state Migrant Workmen Act 1979, accommodation and medical facilities have to be provided to workers if brought in by a contractor. Though accommodation is given sometimes, conditions are squalid. Says Sister Merin, “In Kakkanad, Ernakulam, we found 500 people were sharing one toilet. Workers are also often denied any medical benefits if there is an accident.”

The state has initiated a Kerala Migrant Workers’ Welfare Fund, under which registered workers can claim medical benefits. Additional labour commissioner V.L. Anil Kumar says, “Some 23,500 workers have registered so far. The government is also planning a common shelter for these workers.” A pertinent question now is, how many will manage to find shelter under it?


Outlook, 23 January, 2012, http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?279566


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