Migrants swarming Kerala, who are they?

What happened in Aluva was grotesque by all human standards. The five-year-old from Bihar used to speak Malayalam fluently. Her teachers wailed inconsolably remembering her school days and told media how cherubic she was all along with faculties and students. Yet, the unthinkable happened and Kerala ached in that loss.

The torn-apart body of the five-year-old girl was found near the shores of Periyar. The postmortem report pointed to gruesome sexual assault with grave injuries all over private parts. The accused Asafak Alam is a history-sheeter as per the latest reports. Delhi police arrested Alam in 2018 for attempting a sexual assault on a 10-year-old girl. He was incarcerated for one month in jail but came out on bail and eloped.

Thousands of migrant workers are arriving in Kerala daily, seeking better fortunes. However, nobody knows the real identity of these people. Many among them may be hated criminals or can be gross violators. The government needs to amend its policy or else, such incidents will recur.

Police should make developments to ensure the real identity of incoming migrants. An easy registration process should find out whether the migrant laborers are habitual offenders or not. Special daycare can also be started for accommodating children of such migrant laborers, while they attend work. Migrants are swarming in Kerala for work, so it is impossible just to leave their kids astray and the onus lies on the government to provide all better amenities mostly shelter for such children.

From 2016 to 2023, 31,364 crimes were committed against children in Kerala. About 10,000 children from this were sexual assaults. The accused arrested in the Aluva incident has been booked under the POCSO Act along with the charge of murder. As part of immediate financial relief, the Department of Women and Children has sanctioned Rs 1 lakh to the beleaguered family. However, the money is paltry and won't suffice any of the family’s immediate needs. The government should leave away the miser act and help the family that needs more support from the government than anyone else. Migrant laborers are brought to Kerala often through agents. The government should start giving licenses to these agents. The migrant laborers reaching a particular location should be made to get a clearance certificate from the police station of that locality. Police also should ramp up their inspection in major migrant camps and if found migrants not having the necessary papers, no mercy shall prevail but those workers should be immediately sent back home. If these mentioned reforms get executed in a plain sailing way, better will be the prospect of locals and small children in Kerala.