PERUMBAVOOR: Outside a tiny ticket window at a movie theatre in Perumbavoor, the crowd makes a beeline for cheap tickets, selling at just Rs 40 each. But the excited milling crowd has come to watch not Mammootty but Bhojpuri film star Nirahua. In swathes of Kerala of late, Bhojpuri, Bangla and Odia films are as ubiquitous as are conversations being conducted in Hindi at malls, restaurants and auto-rickshaws.
As the sheen on Kerala’s Gulf Dream continues to fade, the southern state finds itself caught in another wave of migration. While the number of Malayali emigrants has continued to decline in the past few years, the number of workers from other states in India pouring into Kerala has increased manifold. A look at data lifts the lid on this mass manpower movement which is likely to have far reaching implications on the state’s society and its labour force.