As Locals Take-off, North Indian Workers Grab Jobs in Kerala

Half a million youth, a lot of them overqualified, applied for 1,500 jobs in the Kerala secretariat.

Representational image: Migrant workers in Kerala (Photo Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons)

If you find yourself at a bus depot, a railway station or even at a government office in Kerala, you would be surprised to hear the number of people talking in Hindi. As a matter of fact, even many locals are often heard conversing in the language.

As astounding as it may sound, but with most educated Keralites either opting for white collar jobs and the unskilled and semi-skilled locals taking off to the gulf for better prospects, workers from the north and north east India are fast filling up the vacuum.

Just last week, a total of 5.18 lakh applicants appeared for a Public Service Commission test for 1,500 positions of assistants in the state secretariat. According to an official at the Kerala State Secretariat, a large number of applicants were overqualified with postgraduate degrees, but were willing to take up positions of assistants.

Government Jobs at Home or Menial Jobs in the Gulf

Literacy has created a deep paradox in Kerala. So if the educated locals fail to find a suitable white collar job in the state, they prefer taking off to the Gulf, where they have no qualms even being employed as manual labourers.

More than two million Keralites are now working in various Gulf countries, according to the Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum. Majority of the four million job seekers registered with employment agencies in the state are waiting for a job either in the Gulf or in government departments, as reported by the Khaleej Times.

Migrant Workers Flock to Kerala

According to a report in the Hindu Business Line, workers – mostly from West Bengal, Orissa, Assam and Uttar Pradesh that account for 75% of the migrants in Kerala – are sending back a staggering Rs 17,500 crore to their home states in a year.

A survey by the Gulati Institute of Taxation found that the number of migrant workers in the State could rise to 4.8 million in the next 10 years. The construction sector is likely to see the maximum surge as it employs nearly 60% of the workers.

Hotels, restaurants, manufacturing units, factories and the agricultural sector is also employing migrant workers, mostly single men between the age group of 18 and 30.

Increasing Remuneration and Demand

Until 2013, the daily wage for a worker in the construction sector was Rs 300. However, it has increased to Rs 600 per day due to the increase in demand for workers and the acute shortage of local ones.

Zaki Ahmed Khan, a migrant worker from Moradabad, UP who is working in the construction sector in Kochi had earlier gone to Saudi Arabia to make a living. However, soon after he arrived there, he realised that he wasn’t getting paid enough.

I was paid 750 Riyal (Rs 11,914) per month out of which, almost 450 (Rs 7,659) Riyal was spent on food and lodging. I could barely send Rs 4000 home where I have a family to feed.
– Zaki Ahmed Khan

He returned after six months and then headed to Kochi. Now, he earns Rs 600 a day in the construction sector which gets him approximately Rs 18,000 a month.

I end up sending anything between Rs 8000 to Rs 9,000 per month back home.
– Zaki Ahmed Khan

Social Acceptability

The situation of unskilled and semi-skilled Kerelites is no different in the Gulf. They too make around Rs 10,000 - Rs 12,000, but they refuse to return despite the fact that they can make more money at home.

For them, it is a matter of pride and social acceptability that their foreign job brings to their families and relatives back home.