Pilgrims of hope: A story of displacement and resilience of migrant workers in Kerala

Kochi: Shiroda natives Anand Jena and his sister Ahalya run a food stall catering almost exclusively to migrant labourers. Their chicken soup, made using traditional Odisha recipes, sells like hotcakes on Peringattuparambu Street in Nettoor, home to nearly 1,000 Odisha natives.

By 6pm, sales surge as labourers return from work. For many of these workers — who often share a room with around six others and sleep on mats — the soup offers a comforting boost after a long, gruelling day.It has been over a quarter of a century since Kerala's migration boom began. Today, one in four workers in the state is a migrant. While remittances from Kerala have transformed regions in states like Odisha and West Bengal, the lives of migrants here also tell a cautionary tale — one marked not just by hardship and earnings, but by exploitation, harassment and discrimination.‘Wage theft' is happening on a massive scale among migrant workers in Kerala, says Benoy Peter, executive director of the Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development (CMID). "In the past two years, over Rs 1 crore pending wages of migrant workers in Ernakulam and neighbouring areas were paid following the intervention of CMID. When we intervene in five cases, we can resolve only one. There are several other cases which do not come to our attention as well.

So, you can imagine the level of actual wage theft happening," says Peter.

Nearly two migrant workers die in the state in a day and almost half of them are due to workplace accidents, says Peter. The number of workers who sustain severe injuries in workplace accidents is also high. Karthik Naik, a labourer from Ganjam in Odisha, said that he was rendered jobless for a year after a workplace accident three years ago. "I was sitting on the floor and working when a concrete pillar collapsed onto my arm.

It broke and the fracture was severe. I was given Rs 10,000 by the contractor and he sent me home. I couldn't continue here and file a case since staying here without being able to wash my clothes or even eat on my own was impossible. I had to go back to my village and stay home for nearly six months. Even after that, I couldn't lift weights. I have three girl children, and I had to borrow money from people to make ends meet," says Naik.CMID has compiled around 30 cases of deaths from around Ernakulam and handed them over to the Legal Service Society, including FIRs, urging action. "The person who makes the most benefit out of migration is the employer. He gets cheap and disciplined labour. It is very easy to hire, exploit and fire. If an accident happens, the worker is silently sent away, maybe with a small payment. Then there is no follow-up enquiry," says Benoy.

He adds that while migrant workers have become the backbone of the Kerala economy, they are treated as informal workers, made to work more hours with lesser wages than Malayali workers, denied social security benefits and made to stay in unhygienic circumstances.Beyond the struggles, migrant workers are scripting success tales through their earnings. It is estimated that they spent nearly 200 billion rupees in the state and took back wages, double the amount.

A recent study has shown that Daringbadi in the Kandhamal district of Odisha, considered one of the most backward districts, is undergoing an economic revival, thanks to remittances from migrant labourers. The study found that migration brings nearly Rs 35 crore to the Daringbadi block annually as remittances.

A similar revival is taking place in other areas in states like Odisha, Assam and West Bengal.West Bengal native Jontu Ghosh who works in Valayanchirangara, Perumbavoor, says that he has been staying in Kerala for 14 years.

Life here is ‘adipoli', says Ghosh, in fluent Malayalam. "The people here are good and there are no problems here. There is no tension and I get a good salary. Back in West Bengal, if I was getting Rs 600 wage, here I get double that. We can easily save and send home," says Ghosh. Shatrughnan, a migrant worker who has worked across Kerala, said they can find jobs in cities like Bhubaneswar, but they feel accepted in Kerala, and they save more here.

"If we are working in cities in our home state, there is a chance that we would go home often, spend more, limiting our earnings. But here, we will stay long and work more. The wages are better here as well. However, we do have expenses. Each of us must pay Rs 1,000 per head for rent and buy groceries from the shop run by the house owner.

Also, we have travel expenses," he said.It was in the latter half of the 1990s, the migrant workforce from North Indian states started replacing outstation workers from neighbouring states like Tamil Nadu.

In Indian states, Kerala was one of the first where the Total Fertility Rate went below replacement levels. When the major investment of nuclear families became education, it led to a high level of educated unemployment and a lack of workforce for blue-collar jobs.

At the same time, there was a boom in construction through remittance from abroad.A majority of migrant workers in Kerala are from West Bengal, nearly 40% and about 20% each from Assam and TN.

Plywood industry in Assam collapsed following a Supreme Court ruling in 1996, which banned veneer mills and plywood mills in forest areas. At the same time, Perumbavoor and Kallayi were the centres of the timber trade in Kerala. The situation was worsening here and the timber traders in Perumbavoor who were running sawmills shifted to plywood and veneer units.

This led to the migration of skilled labourers from Assam.

The flourishing of the iron and steel industry in Palakkad, Kanjikode, led to a flow of migrants from North Indian states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Over the years, migrant workers from across India have filled essential roles in a wide range of sectors in Kerala.Today, Kerala is reliant on this workforce, with migrants forming the backbone of its economy. However, experts like S Irudayarajan, former Professor at the Centre for Development Studies, warn of an uncertain future for Kerala if migrant workers stop arriving due to demographic changes in their home states."When a large number of people migrate to states like Kerala for better job opportunities and wages, their home states begin to face a labour shortage over time," Irudayarajan explains. "This shift drives up wages and demand for labour in those regions, eventually discouraging workers from continuing to migrate to Kerala, which is itself grappling with an ageing population and shrinking workforce." He emphasizes that the Kerala govt must urgently undertake a comprehensive study and formulate a long-term strategy to address this looming challenge.

A significant drop in the migrant workforce could have serious implications for Kerala.