Tough going for migrant labourers

KOCHI: In recent years Kerala has seen a drastic increase in the inflow of migrant labourers from the North and the North-East as the wages here are quite attractive. While financial security is attained, physical, emotional and psychological safety of these people are at stake.Although the labour and medical department under the state government have begun to clamp down on the exploitative practices of employers and labour contractors, the problem appears to be aggravating with each passing day.Under-reporting is rampant and there are reports about workers being exploited. Most of them live in extremely poor and unhygienic conditions.The medical department has taken it as a special task to reach out to these people with awareness programmes, early detection of possible outbreak of contagious diseases and also providing medical and personnel assistance to their psychological problems.“Most of North Indian workers are not serious about hygiene. Even though we provide them sanitation facilities they do not use them properly.  the majority of them have the habit of consuming alcohol and other dangerous narcotics,” says Dr R Sudhakaran, DMO, Kochi.“In recent years we have seen a new psychological phenomenon among these workers. As they stay away from the family, lack of the care leads to emotional disorders. Lack of proper sexual life leads to  man to man sexual relations, medically called the ‘Koro’s syndrome’ .This has been reported. There are reports that criminal tendencies are on the rise,” said Dr. Sudhakaran."We have been organising regular programmes to create awareness. Medicines and service of psychiatrists are also made available to those facing serious trauma," he said.The eight-hour work schedule has little relevance for the migrant labourers. In many a case 12-hour work cycle is the norm. Working conditions in these units and wages are just about unknown to the outside world. Many of these workers refuse to speak about their difficulties for fear of physical torture.The DMO admitted that much needs to be done on the part of the labour and medical  department. “Communication with these people becomes difficult because most of them speak local dialects of their native places. They do not believe in medication and take recourse to black magicians and other religious rites for healing. All these become a hindrance to our reaching out to them,” he said.