A village full of migrant workers — from Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha and Assam — Kuttipadam, about 45km from Kochi’s main town area, is home to around 30 cellphone shops and little else. And the money that keeps these shops running comes from the migrants who may not visit their families for years.
The nondescript village doesn’t even have a decent road connection with Kochi. What it has in plenty are cheap China-made mobile phones, mostly in the price range of ₹1,500-2,000. Only the contractors and the supervisors can afford the more expensive models.
Apart from making phone calls, Kuttipadam residents use their mobiles for money transfer. According to a report in The Times of India , a migrant sends home anything between ₹10,000 and ₹20,000 a month. The high demand for cash transfer is one of the main reasons behind the mushrooming of cellphone outlets in some of the other neighbourhoods like Perumbavoor, also near Kochi, which is home to many workers who are in Kerala to find work.
Shopkeepers also help mobile users download songs from regional films and manage their Facebook pages.