A visit to Slums of Manappaty Parambu on 02/07/2009

A report: Localities v. Migrants

Introduction
Internal migration is now recognized as an important factor in
influencing social and economic development, especially in
developing countries. The city of Cochin has the reputation of a
young rising metro in India. It has all the potential to be city like
Mumbai or Chennai in the years to come. But it miserably fails
in the management of these resources for the social welfare.
The local authorities tend to forget that along with construction
of skyscrapers it is also essential to achieve Millennium Goals
such as eradication of poverty and providing basic amenities of
life mentioned in Indian constitution.

Among those who have a proper place to live complain of

guttery and uneven roads and dirty streets. Those who doesn’t
have one, has no choice but to evade some government owned
land. This has been one of the major problems this city has
been facing since its rise in the real estate market value.

Our recent visit to Manappatiparambu, one of the infamous

slums in the heart area of Cochin helped us to gauge the
intensity of the issue. We met the localities as well as the
migrants. We heard both the views and came to a conclusion
which is far more pragmatic.
What did local residents have to say?

Local residents of Manappaty Parambu, were not at all in good

terms with migrants who were residing in the plot which is
under the ownership of GCDA and Kochi Corporation when we
visited there on 2nd July. They accuse the activities of migrant
labours to be the main cause behind unhygienic
nieghbourhood, disturbances in the night, polluting the
environment and increasing crimes. Locals believe that even
though the migrants have enough money to rent a house they
deliberately restrain from it, in order to save money. In this way
they are using the limited public resources such as fresh water
taps etc for bathing of tax paying locality’s cost. They have
been complaining of Kochi Corporation’s senseless decision to
waste the resources by allowing migrants to live in a plot,
situated in the centre part of city, which if wisely used, is a
major revenue source.

What did the migrants have to say?

As the migrant homes were demolished on 1st July, i.e. a day

before we visited there, the migrant was in a very sorry state of
affairs. They were mainly from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and
Karnataka. About 70% of the inhabitants had left before we
came. They follow a schedule of 3 months of labour outside
their homeland and remaining 8 months back to their homes.
According to their testimonials, on an average they receive
around Rs.350 per day for manual labour, gardening, farming
etc. They say that there are very few Anti-social elements
within their group who creates all the problems in the
nieghbourhood for which a large number of innocents need to
suffer. They points out that the most of the criminals are from
Tamil Nadu besides they don’t have a proper identity also. All
the houses which were earlier occupied by them have been
demolished and the plot is going to be turned into a parking lot.
They complain that the locals refuse lent houses to them due to
cultural reasons and fear. In a meeting of one of the residents’
associations in the city, a Police Officer in the local police
station is reported to have warned the residents of the need for
taking additional precautions while renting out the premises to
the migrants.

Around 60% of the total enumerated populations were

females. As far as inter-state movement is concerned there is a
significant sex difference is found.

The reasons for migration have been classified into seven

broad groups – work/employment, business, education,
marriage, moved at birth, moved with family and others. It is
observed that employment among males and marriage among
females are the main reasons for migration. Associational
reasons – movement on account of accompanying parents or
any other member of the family is elicited second most
important reason among both male and female intercensal
migrants.

JAWAHARLAL NEHRU NATIONAL URBAN RENEWAL MISSION

Development of slums are one of highest priorities in common

minimum programme of the incumbent government through
this project for providing shelter, basic services and other
related civic amenities with a view to providing utilities to the
urban poor. It is proposed to take up a comprehensive
programme of urban renewal and expansion of social housing
in towns and cities, paying attention to the needs of slum
dwellers. It offers projects for providing houses at affordable
cost for slum dwellers, urban poor, economically weaker
sections (EWS) and lower income group (LIG) categories. This
will be administered by the Ministry of Urban Employment and
Poverty Alleviation through the Sub-Mission Directorate for
Basic Services to the Urban Poor.
Conclusion
There is growing evidence in India to suggest that the country
is moving fast in the overall development. Structural
transformation in the 1990s has propelled the growth of the
economy further. The percentage of people below poverty line
has reduced and per capita consumption has improved
simultaneously. Although Indian economy is predominantly
agricultural, the proportion of work force engaged in
agricultural activities has fallen significantly. This reduction is
perhaps, a sign of enhanced job opportunities in other sectors.
A quick look at the flow matrix shows that the poorest states in
terms of state’s per capita income have moved to states with
high per capita income for higher wages and better
opportunities.

Kerala: A Gulf for migrant labourers

Kerala is witnessing large inflow of migrant labour from

different parts of the country in recent years. Though labourers
from states as far as West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and
Orissa now flock to Kerala, those from the neighbouring state of
Tamilnadu out number others by a big margin. Higher wages
for unskilled labour in the state, large opportunities for
employment and shortage of local labour, paradoxically despite
the high unemployment rate in the state, led to the massive
influx of migrant labour to the state. With signs of rapid growth
of state’s economy and the increase in activities particularly in
the infrastructure and construction sectors, the inmigration is
expected to grow faster in the coming years.

The other side of the hype

The migrant labourers get much higher monetary wages than

in their native places. But, they work for longer hours and their
real wages may be lower as they have to incur higher cost of
living in Kochi on food, shelter and transport. They live in
shanty houses/rooms in slum like localities often on a sharing
basis. A few of them live on verandas of shops. They have
limited access to sanitation facilities and safe water. Their
practices of waste disposal pose problems of public health and
environment. Their working and living conditions and habits
make them suffer from a number of diseases. But their access
to public services like health and education is limited. They
enjoy very limited protection from labour laws. They also face
problems of social integration in Kerala. There are reports of
large number of human rights violations. With the possibility of
much larger influx in view of the large scale expansion of
economic activities in the State, the migrants can put heavy
pressure on urban infrastructure, environment and public
services. They may also pose many challenges in governance
particularly of urban areas.

Most of the migrant workers live in shanty houses/rooms in

slum-like localities often on a sharing basis. In many cases, the
houses/rooms are over crowded. Only one in twenty families
lives in an independent house. Others live mostly in a single
room or share a house with others. This pattern is different
from the usual pattern of accommodation of Malayalee families
in Kerala. Many of the migrant families live in small houses or
rooms where adequate toilet facilities are absent. Few of the
workers who are not accompanied by their family members live
in verandahs of shops. Sharing of one toilet by two or more
families sometimes force some of them to use the public places
instead of toilets.

Pressure on government?

The current analysis alerts policy makers, planners and

administrators at the State as well as local levels on some of
the issues resulting from the rapid growth in migrant
population. It pointed out that in view of the rising in-migration,
questions related to governance, public health, sanitation,
water supply, housing, urban environment, education and
infrastructural needs, and law and order warrant greater
attention.

The large influx of migrants from different parts of the country

with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds puts pressure
on governance as well as civic amenities. Problems are also
expected to crop up due to the absence of reliable information
on the quantum of in-migration of a floating nature and these
migrants are unlikely to be taken into account while making
population projections and consequently in planning. For
integration issues relating to migration into local governance,
alternative population projections that include migrants of all
types have to be made. It is recommended that the volume and
diversity of the migrant population has to be taken into account
in urban planning and implementation of programmes and
projects such as Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission and
Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Project.