Spurt in crimes involving migrant workers rattles Kerala

Kerala, which relies heavily on migrant workers, is jittery over a recent spike in the number of crimes committed by them, whose number makes up close to a tenth of the resident population.

In just a week’s time, six murders in three different incidents were reported, sending shock waves among the tens of thousands of people who regularly employ migrant labourers.

An elderly couple and their young son, who employed a worker from Uttar Pradesh in their laundry business, were brutally murdered, allegedly by the worker. The three were stabbed, electrocuted and doused with acid before the suspect fled to his native village. The Kerala Police tracked him down and captured him.

A migrant worker murdered his co-worker and dumped the body, wrapped in a gunny bag, by the wayside. The accused was also arrested.

In yet another case of murder, a young mother and her child were found slaughtered in paddy field. The police are on the hunt for the woman’s husband, who had allegedly committed the murders.

Migrant workers – mainly from Bengal, Orissa, Assam, UP, Jharkhand and Manipur – are employed in almost all sectors of the economy now. In the past, they were mostly found in construction and plantation sectors, but now almost every restaurant, workshop and petrol pump in the State has at least one migrant worker.

The acute shortage of manual labourers and semi-skilled workers, coupled with the Keralites’ reluctance to do manual, menial tasks, has led to the influx of young people from the North and Eastern States.

According to a 2013 survey, there were 2.5 million migrant workers in Kerala. The number has gone up substantially in the past two years with even white-collar job opportunities opening up before them. This means that the current migrant population could be around one-tenth of the resident population which was around 33 million in 2011. And, the huge majority of the migrants are young.

Naturally, the increase in the number of crimes is a big concern for the resident population and the administrators. Murders apart, innumerable cases of theft, burglary, drug peddling, drug abuse, kidnaps, fights and sexual crimes involving migrant workers have been reported, especially from the countryside where the workers are in close contact with local residents.

Rise in the number of sexual offences especially causes alarm. Until a few years back, sexual offences by migrants were rare.

“Over 90 per cent of the migrants are single males, and most of them are young,” said Thomas Varkey of Nilambur, who employs six workers from North-East on his rubber plantation. “Sexual offences then are bound to occur.”

He said elopement of local girls with migrant workers had led to the driving out of hordes of migrant labourers in some North Kerala villages. Varkey feels that encouraging the workers to bring along their wives and families will reduce the criminal tendencies.