Over two lakh migrant workers move to Kerala annually and there are over 25 lakh such workers in the State according to estimates of Thiruvananthapuram-based Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation, an autonomous institution under the Kerala government. Most come from West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha. What makes them travel such long distances? Higher wages and ample opportunities for unskilled and semi-skilled workers, and even some skilled workers.

Wages in Kerala’s informal sector are among the highest anywhere in the country, and that’s thanks to the bargaining power of unionised labour. The recent NSSO report of studies conducted in 2015-16 show that informal sector wages in Kerala were 1.43 times the national average; and as much as 2.3 times the wages in Assam. A worker in the informal sector in Kerala earned about Rs 1,25,616 in 2015-16 compared to Rs 53,726 earned by a worker in Assam. The average wage in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal was about Rs 58,700 per annum.

Migration is a reality that Kerala has lived with and will continue to do so. Until a few years ago, migration was mostly outwards from the State to elsewhere in the country and to overseas destinations such as West Asia. Remittances by migrant workers made the State prosperous and various government and private initiative over the years made it India’s first fully literate State with social development indicators comparable with the developed world. Therefore, the reluctance of younger Malayalees to take up blue collar jobs is not surprising. This has created a wide gap in the demand and supply of labour in the State. That gap needs to be filled and it would be in Kerala’s interest to embrace workers from other parts of the country and help them assimilate with its culture, as it has done over centuries when traders from different parts of the world landed on it shores.

Senior Deputy Editor

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