By Bhupen Goswami
Guwahati :A total of 54,235 people from Assam – including 3,111 females and 10 transgenders – are currently working in various industries in the southern state of Kerala, according to figures provided by the Kerala government. Among the Assamese migrant workers, 51,114 are males. According to the Kerala government official figure, the total number of registered migrant workers in the State is 3,6,772 – of which 3,49,010 are males, 19,688 females and 147 transgenders.
Besides Assam, a large number of workers from the other states of the North East are also engaged in various sectors in Kerala. Official data states that 431 workers are from Arunachal Pradesh, 407 from Manipur, 364 from Meghalaya, 56 from Mizoram, 337 from Nagaland, and 809 from Tripura. Kerala has witnessed a steady flow of migrant workers from other States, particularly from West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha over the last two decades because of huge migration of Keralites to Middle east creating a vaccum to do the basic works. . Now, migrant workers are bridging that gap and have become a crucial and integral part of the Kerala economy across multiple sectors such as agriculture, construction, hospitality, etc.
