Construction sector in crisis

Fifty years ago, hardly anyone in Kerala would have imagined calling a worker from Bengal to pluck coconuts. Today, a phone conversation of a Malayali homemaker speaking in broken Hindi and Malayalam while asking a Bengali worker to climb a coconut tree has gone viral on social media. Migrant workers have now become an essential part of daily life in Kerala, not just for plucking coconuts, but also for planting paddy, making porotta, preparing juice, working in restaurants, delivering newspapers, rowing boats, and countless other jobs. The dependence has grown to such an extent that many believe Kerala would come to a standstill if all migrant workers left the state together. That is now becoming a reality. A large number of migrant workers who went back to West Bengal to vote in the elections have still not returned. The construction sector has been hit the hardest by the shortage of workers.

Usually, migrant workers travel back home in groups only during festival seasons, and even then, not everyone leaves at the same time. Because of this, work in Kerala was rarely affected. This time, however, many workers were reportedly told that if they did not vote, their names could be removed from the voter list and ration cards. As a result, workers from Bengal returned home in large numbers. Even after the elections, only a small percentage of them have come back. Before the elections, many restaurants and small businesses had already shut down due to a shortage of cooking gas cylinders, which also contributed to workers leaving the state. In Kerala’s construction sector, nearly 90 percent of physically demanding jobs are handled by migrant labourers. Due to their absence, construction work on flats, buildings and houses has slowed down or stopped completely in many places.

Unofficial estimates suggest that Kerala has between 30 lakh and 40 lakh migrant workers. More than half of them are believed to have returned home to vote. After restaurants shut down, many of the remaining workers also left. In areas like Perumbavoor in Ernakulam district, where migrant workers are heavily concentrated, businesses have slowed down significantly after their departure. The plywood industry is also facing the threat of closure. After Ernakulam, the highest number of migrant workers is concentrated in Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram. In Thiruvananthapuram, construction work in the flat-building sector has dropped to less than half because of the labour shortage. Across Kerala, around 15 lakh migrant workers are directly involved in construction-related activities. Since many workers frequently move in and out of the state, there is no exact count.

Only around five lakh workers are officially registered on the government’s registration portal. However, it is believed that Thiruvananthapuram district alone may have more than five lakh migrant workers. Experts say it is difficult to predict how long Kerala can continue depending on migrant labour. If development and job opportunities improve in West Bengal, fewer workers may come to Kerala in the coming years. Keeping this in mind, there is a growing demand for the government and private sector to start training centres focused on mechanisation and skilled labour development. Contractors believe that Kerala’s stalled construction sector may begin to recover only after workers return, likely by the first week of June.