Legislation on the lines of the Karnataka State Employment of Local Candidates in the Industries, Factories and Other Establishments Bill, 2024, reserving jobs for locals in the private sector, is nearly impossible in Kerala and could prove to be counterproductive to the State’s interests. Given the stiff opposition to it, the Karnataka Bill has been suspended for the time being.
In Kerala, even manual labourers, who are highly likely to lose jobs to inter-State workers, despise the idea on moral, ethical, and legal grounds. “Regionalism flies in the face of the constitutional right guaranteed to every Indian to work anywhere in the country. How can Malayalis, who have travelled across the world in search of better prospects, oppose migration? Migrants have not encroached into our space,” says M.A. Mohanan, 57, a headload worker in Kakkanad, Ernakulam, and district committee member, Headload and General Workers Union.
Treatment of migrant workers
However, migrant workers say they face hostility. Rajendar Naik, 40, migrated to Kerala when he was 15 and works in the plywood industry hub of Perumbavoor in rural Ernakulam. He says the local workforce can be hostile towards migrant workers. George Mathew, chairperson of the Progressive Workers’ Organisation, which works for the welfare of migrant workers, agrees: “Migrant workers are seen as an underclass by the local community. But any attempt to push them out will be met with resistance from the government — not because of an ethical stance but because their labour is linked to the profit-making capacity of corporates.”
A working group report by the Social Service Division of the Kerala State Planning Board noted in 2022 that the number of migrant workers, called ‘guest workers’ by the government, was 31 lakh in 2017-18. Of them, 21 lakh were temporary workers; the remaining stayed in the State for a longer period. It said, “Among the long-term migrants, about 5% live with their families in Kerala.”
In a Planning Board-sponsored study, ‘In-migration, Informal Employment and Urbanisation in Kerala’, in 2021, Jajati Keshari Parida and K. Ravi Raman said that migrants formed about 26.3% of the total workforce in Kerala. Considering that Kerala is an ageing society with two districts already registering negative population growth, and there is large-scale out-migration of youth from the State, there is a huge gap in the availability of people for unskilled and semi-skilled jobs.
“It is a strange situation. Even Keralites who return from abroad, where they were doing unskilled jobs, are unwilling to do the same in their State,” says Martin Patrick, a social scientist and expert in the field of unorganised labour force.
Minimum wages
In Kerala, migrant workers are guaranteed minimum wages, which are higher than what they would get in their home States. Kerala has also introduced health insurance schemes and limited paid hostel accommodation for migrant workers. In Ernakulam, a programme ensures the education of the wards of migrant workers.
R. Chandrasekharan, the State president of the Indian National Trade Union Congress, however argues that nine minimum wage notifications across various sectors in the last seven years of the Left Democratic Front government have remained in limbo after various managements, which were party to the elaborate consultative process leading into the notifications, got them stayed by the court. “The State’s law officers have failed to convince the court about the double standards of the parties concerned in questioning the notifications after giving their consent during the consultation phase,” he says.
Benoy Peter, executive director of the Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development, says Kerala relies more on migrant workers than the migrant workers rely on Kerala. “So, if they turn elsewhere, the State will be staring at a crisis,” he says. Already, traditional and largely informal sectors such as construction, marine fishing, plywood, and hospitality are almost fully reliant on migrant workers.
“In fact, the Kerala government is not facing a situation where the migrant influx is threatening the jobs of the local workforce. Rather, there is an acute shortage of unskilled workers. On the other hand, reserving work in the private formal sectors poses the threat of flight of industries,” he says.
Mujeeb Rahman, a leading plywood manufacturer, says around 95% of workers in plywood factories are migrants. It is impossible to find a local workforce with the right skill sets to replace them, he says.
A dignified environment
Supriya Debnath, 30, who migrated to Perumbavoor from Kendrapara district in Odisha nine years ago, is now a link worker for the National Health Mission. She is troubled by the indifference of a section of the local populace towards migrant workers. “Being without work can be a nightmare for migrants as they hardly receive any help from their employers. This is especially in the case of seasonal industries such as brick kilns. Migrants are left without work during the rains,” she says.
Debnath wants the government to provide a dignified and hygienic living environment for these workers. Her concern assumes significance in the wake of a recent incident at Piravom along the eastern suburbs of Ernakulam district where a migrant worker was found living in a dog kennel for a monthly rent of ₹500.
