The Hindu Business Line : Kerala's imported labourers

HITHERTO known as the land of few job opportunities, with nearly all of its literate hoards migrating to other parts of India and West Asia in search of greener pastures, Kerala is now offering jobs to people from Orissa, Bihar and West Bengal.

As in Punjab and Haryana, people's growing dislike for jobs involving physical labour has prompted the State to import labour from the north for such tasks. It is now not unusual to see these labourers harvesting grain, gathering coconuts, or milking cattle.

With the hospitality industry booming, locals are being fast replaced by labour from Uttar Pradesh, which reportedly includes recruitment of children as cooks and cleaners in hotels. According to some estimates, over 60 per cent of menial jobs in Kerala's hotel industry is now held by these immigrants.

It is not only aversion of the locals to do physical work that is compelling employers to woo the people from the North but also the fear of inevitable delays and frequent interruptions, often instigated by the local trade unions.

The builders of mega projects such as telecommunication, roads and townships and techno parks prefer to recruit people from the North. This leaves the Left parties in a Catch-22 like situation, as they are unable to fight for fair wages and other working conditions of the imported labourers for fear of alienation by the locals.

A prominent trade union accuses the State of failing to tackle issues of exploitation of the imported labourers and wants a bureaucratic commission to be set up to safeguard the local interests. However, it is an open secret that the number of people who have come in far exceeds any limits set by "Supply Permits" issued to contractors.

Outsiders who come to work in infrastructure projects are prepared to stay in temporary shelters near the site of construction and live frugally, preferring to send the sums they earn to families in their home towns. Unlike the locals who are sticklers for the eight-hour work schedule, they are prepared to work 24x7. They work regardless of bandhs, hartals or political clashes. And contractors are able to stick to their schedules because of this.

Some feel that years of militant trade unionism are responsible for delivering the jobs in Kerala into the hands of Biharis and the like. While the State government routinely assures that complaints of exploitation of imported workers are attended to, there are reports that people belonging to the local trade unions affiliated to political parties often subject these workers to considerable abuse and harassment.

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