By Mobin Pandit
India remains the largest exporter of manpower to Qatar but the trend of emigration within the country itself has been changing recently. Reports say that the southern state of Kerala, which has been sending the largest number of workers to the Gulf, has become ‘the Gulf’ in India, with workers from the northern states of the country migrating to the state in search of jobs.
And in India, the southern state of Andhra Pradesh reportedly sends more workers to Qatar than Kerala, reversing a long trend. Kerala’s Gulf connection is decades old — having begun as early as the 1950s.
There seems to be a steep decline in the number of semi and skilled Keralite workers making their way to Doha and the rest of the GCC region primarily because there is an acute shortage of labour in the state itself.
The money that has been flowing into the state over the past several decades, mainly from the Gulf, has left its people relatively prosperous. And prosperity has encouraged people to access education.
“More people have college education in Kerala today, unlike the years gone by when people were less educated and came to the Gulf in large numbers to take up low-wage jobs,” says P N Baburaj, media person and community activist.
But today, those who are only literate can make enough money in Kerala to support themselves and their families since there is no dearth of menial jobs and, additionally, there is a central government rural employment scheme which has come to their aid, adds Baburaj. “The wage difference between Kerala and the Gulf has been narrowing in the past few years.”
The labour shortage is so acute in Kerala that it has become the ‘Gulf’ for people from some relatively poor states in the north. Nearly all workers at restaurants, barber shops and in the construction sector in Kerala are migrants from the northern states.
“If you just hold a brick on a construction site you get paid Rs500 (QR35) for a few hours of work,” says Iqbal Chettuwa, another community activist. This is roughly the average daily wage for a menial worker in the GCC. It is, thus, natural that a semi-skilled Keralite worker would prefer to live at home with family than toil outside his state, argues Chettuwa.
In the years past, for most low-paid Keralites based in the Gulf, the ‘Gulf dream’ meant modern electronic gadgets and household appliances like TV, music sets, fridge and washing machines, among others. “They are all available now in the state and on easy installments. People have money and can buy these items without coming to the Gulf,” argues Baburaj.
The wage differentials between Kerala and the Gulf are narrowing so much that many low-income workers have returned for good and have become fish or tea vendors back home.
“I had a chance meeting with a Doha returnee in a Kerala city and he told me he was selling fish and making Rs30,000 (QR2,100) a month on an average — double the sum he was earning here,” said a Keralite here not wanting his name in print.
The few who didn’t have the privilege of college education — mostly Muslims from northern Kerala — still come to the Gulf but that is because they have relatives here running neighbourhood stores where they can work and stay with their relatives, he added.
“Why should a mason from Kerala come here when he can earn Rs600 (QR43) a day back home — almost the same wage he would get here?” asks Baburaj. “He is living comfortably with his family and making that much money working just a few hours a day.”
However, professionals like accountants are still making their way to the Gulf, says Chettuwa.
Not everyone agrees with Chettuwa and Baburaj, though, as many believe it might be due to a dearth of the kind of jobs semi-skilled Keralite workers would want to do in the Gulf that is causing a decline in their migration to the region.
“Actually, the demand has shrunk for semi-skilled and unskilled jobs in the Gulf region as a whole and that explains the fall in the inflow of Keralite workers,” says Mohamed Althaf from Lulu Hypermarket.
“Issue them the visas and see...They would just pour in,” he said, though, agreeing that his home state does not continue to be the top exporter of manpower to the Gulf among the Indian states.
According to another Keralite here, the problem with fellow Keralites is that they would prefer to work as a tea boy in an office here for QR1,000 a month rather than take up a menial job at home due to social prestige.
Unskilled Keralites mainly prefer to work in restaurants, grocery stores or large stores and in offices as helpers and do not generally prefer the construction sector.
There are fewer people from southern India in the construction sector. Most construction sector workers are coming over from the north, says M S Bukhari, from construction giant Satco.
Those familiar with manpower business point out that more workers are coming to Qatar from northern Indian states like Rajasthan, Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh.The Peninsula
