The Extend of Turmoil the Domestic Migrant Laborers in Kerala

Abstract

India is the largest recipient off international remittances in the world of which about 50% were classified as remittances towards family maintenance. Kerala accounts for about 40% of the Indian household remittances. Kerala along with Punjab and Goa also reports high international migration: whereas at the all-India level only 38 per 1000 out-migrants leave the country, it is over ten times t hat number for these states . The large international migration, precipitous fall in fertility, and rapid urbanization has seen Kerala attract domestic migrant labour in large numbers in recent years. The state, located in the south-western tip of the Indian Peninsula, has been witnessing large inflow of migrant labourers not only from the neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka (in South India) but also from states in East India (West Bengal and Orissa), North India (Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand) and North-east (Assam, Manipur). There is also migrant flow to Kerala from Nepal. This has helped to offset the shortage of labour caused partly due to the out-migration to other states and emigration to other countries. Higher wages for unskilled labour in the state, large opportunities for employment and shortage of local labour provided the necessary pull. As elsewhere, the migrant workers coming to Kerala were pushed out of their native places because of low wages and unemployment or underemployment in agriculture and other sectors. With signs of rapid growth of Kerala economy and the increase in activities particularly in infrastructure and construction sectors, the in-migration is expected to grow faster in the coming years. Apart from its importance in the economic development of the state, inter-state migrant flow facilitate retaining the demographic balance in a state which has the highest proportion of aged population and where a good proportion of the population in the working age group have migrated out of the state.

Keywords: Migration, labour issues, pulls back