Existential challenges

The coconut farming has become common in many places in south India in the last twenty years and is becoming less practical in Kerala, which was the home for coconut plantations for decades. The coconut trees are more susceptible to various diseases, the price has declined while the cost of production has gone up and the climbers to pluck coconuts are no more freely available. What was a stable crash crops for farmers in Kerala is getting replaced by rubber plantations. Anna and I have been trying to get a climber to pluck the coconuts in our garden for the last two months with no success.

Most of the unskilled workers who work in the farm, construction sites, fuel stations, industry, etc. in Kerala are migrant workers form Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, North Eastern states, etc. Now with rural employment scheme where each unemployed person can get jobs up to 200 days in  year, these migrant workers do not have to come to Kerala looking for jobs. They are better off in their own states.

I read and hear this issue being debated widely in Kerala. Will there be enough unskilled workers in the future in Kerala!  

All the adolescent children in our neighbourhood, having completed their schooling are looking out for higher education. The school drop outs in the past became unskilled workers. Now this too will not happen as educational opportunities even for someone with less abilities exist in many schools in Kerala. 

There are vast stretches of land uncultivated even in our village as farm labourers are not to be found. 

This points to a global phenomenon. The unskilled workers and even skilled workers in England now come from other parts of Europe or Asia. The professionals have a global market open before them for employment. 

This is an alarming situation in Kerala- painters, plumbers, masons, carpenters, farm workers, domestic workers, etc. are likely to become extinct as young people do not see this as a job career for themselves. 

This vacuum of work force to support the social infrastructure will hit life in rural areas even more.  The workmen prefer to go to towns or cities for better prospects and people prefer to migrate to live in towns and cities by disposing off their farm land. In our village, those who live in our neighbourhood are elderly people, and a few others by choice.  

No wonder more and more gated communities are coming into being, which offer to take care of many chores of life.

I wish the Churches in Kerala who own large properties consider this as a mission to help the ageing population by creating self-supporting communities!  

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)