Migrant effect: Work sites doze off as bhais' leave for Pooja

Kozhikode: Migrant labourer-dominated work sites are at a standstill with workers going home to celebrate Pooja and Deepavali. Construction sites across the state, plywood companies in Perumbavoor, steel and chemical businesses in Kanjikode, Palakkad and ornament manufacturing units in Kozhikode and Thrissur are all muted. “I have supplied 60 labourers to various ornament making units in Kozhikode, and 50 of them had gone home. They will return only after Deepavali. Many units had ceased functioning now,” says K. A. Shajahan, a Kozhikode-based labour contractor.

Shivanandan E., the work supervisor at a steel company in Kanjikode, said local festivals such as Onam and Vishu would affect only a day, but Pooja and Deepavali take four to seven days. “There is around 25,000-strong migrant labour force here. A majority of them will seek leave months before the festival,” he said. ‘Diganta Manja’, a library set up exclusively for migrant labourers at Pattikkad in Malappuram, has fewer visitors these days.

“Usually, there will be a crowd and its hustle and bustle at evenings. Now it’s calm,” says U. Abdulla Khadar, a resident. The weekly market at Sathrappady near Kanjikode and in Perumbavoor wears a deserted look. “Durga Pooja is the most important for Bengalis. We would be at home for the occasion irrespective of the place we live. I did not go as my mother had died last month,” said Nripan, a tile worker in Kuttiady. A much disputed Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation (GIFT) study in 2012 estimated the strength of migrant labour force in Kerala at 25 lakh.