It all looks pretty grim: Kerala sitting on a cauldron of rising unemployment and reverse migration

A former Kerala Minister belonging to the then ruling Left Democratic Front once courted controversy by his tongue-in-cheek remark that the state’s unemployment problem would get resolved if the jobless youths engage themselves in catching stray dogs (the local bodies then used to pay Rs10 per dog).

Came a quick repartee from an irate Congress leader: “Let the DYFI cadres urinate en masse in the catchment areas of Kerala’s hydro-electric projects. It’ll resolve the power crisis in the state and industries would generate more jobs”(that was the time when insufficient inflow of rain water into the catchment areas of reservoirs led to drastic cut in power generation).

Jokes apart, Kerala has the highest rate of unemployment among larger states in India.

According to the live register of the employment exchanges, the number of unemployed people in Kerala stands around 60 lakh, almost one-sixth of the state’s population. Women constitute about 60 % of the total unemployed persons in Kerala. The actual unemployment rate is higher than the official data as a sizable section of unemployed youths don’t register with Employment Exchanges.

One reason for the high unemployment rate is that most people are overqualified and not ready to take up so-called ‘menial’ jobs. Everyone wants an easygoing white collar job , preferably in the Government sector, and none is prepared to work in the fields or do manual labour.

This has led to an exodus of people to Kerala from other Indian states for employment, especially in the construction and agricultural fields. Migrants now outnumber local workers in many professions and have almost totally replaced them in manual jobs and the construction sector,

Except in the field of IT, the opportunities to get jobs that match the educational qualifications of young graduates are limited in Kerala thanks to poor industrialization of the state. Even in IT, opportunities are shrinking in view of poor `employability’ of those who pass out of Engineering colleges, especially self-financing ones.

Kerala also lacks entrepreneurial spirit , leaving less scope for self-employment. The successive state Governments have done precious little to accelerate industrialisation of the state and create job opportunities.

The vast army of unemployed youths in Kerala would have created social upheaval had a big chunk of youths from the state not migrated to other states and countries for employment. It is estimated that over 10% of the population of Kerala, roughly 3-4 million, have migrated to other states and countries since the 1970s in search of employment and livelihood.

Of late, there is a significant fall in migration of people from Kerala to other countries in view of depleting employment opportunities abroad, recession in oil-rich Middle Eastern countries and political turmoil in some countries. This has triggered off reverse migration of workers from abroad back to Kerala. To add fuel to fire, hundreds of expatriates are being deported back to Kerala for having irregular documentation.

The annual remittances by Non-Resident Keralites are estimated around Rs1 lakh crore, which virtually sustains the economy of Kerala. Any fall in remittances could mean serious socio-economic consequences for the state.

It is widely perceived that rising unemployment is at the root of the recent upswing in crime rates in the state. But what is more worrying to intelligence agencies is that idle youths could be a soft target of extremist groups.

Recently, the Union Home Minister had warned Kerala police that the state may well become a happy hunting ground for terror outfits like ISIS. The IB officials have repeatedly cautioned that Kerala is on the terror radar and there are several instances where youth from the state have been recruited for high profile jobs by extremist outfits.

Political masters, are you listening?

Also read:

Is Kerala turning a fertile ground for recruitment of youths to terror outfits?