KOCHI: The migrant worker population in Kerala is swelling and many among them have no plans of returning to their homeland anytime soon. Their children are enrolled in Kerala state schools and in a brief time they have mastered the gruelling Malayalam language. Their Malayalam is so good that can even put to shame the native dialect.
72 out of the migrant workers part of the National Migrant Workers Union led by AITUC have married from Kerala. According to union officials, most of these were arranged marriages, only after conducting a proper background search of the worker. The marriages took place in Ernakulam, Wayanad, Idukki, Kottayam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Thrissur districts. Most of the married migrant workers are currently centred in Perumbavoor.
Most of them have ration cards, speak Malayalam well and even enlisted their name into the voter's list. Some of them even have their own house in the state. These factors proved handy for many proposals coming their way in Kerala. Among these are workers involved in the Kerala government's Life Mission scheme. A labourer named Rajendra Naik of Vazhakulam Panchayat in Ernakulam district is involved in the Life Mission project. He came from Odisha for work almost 25 years back.