Kerala feels the meltdown heat

Kerala has begun to feel the heat of the meltdown. The southern state, which contributes a major chunk of the workforce in the Gulf, fears a backlash of the gloom there.

An exodus is a distant possibility, but natives working abroad live in uncertainty.
“Many of my friends working in Dubai and Abu Dhabi don’t know what will happen to their careers tomorrow. They may lose jobs. Even construction giants are cutting staff by half. Banks are no exception,” said Bobby (name changed), a marketing professional who went job-hunting to Dubai and returned empty-handed.

“I was offered 15,000Dirhams (1Dh=Rs13.26) over the phone. But when I met them, they offered me only 7,000 Dirhams. They admitted my experience was worth more, but reasoned that business was dull,” he said. His contacts, who volunteered to find him a job in Dubai, are now busy securing their own.

But how does the average Indian labourer fare? “Companies are retrenching employees, especially executives from Europe, the US and Canada. In the management’s point of view, it makes sense. They cost many times more than an Indian or any other Asian employee, who often do more work for less,” Irfan (name changed), an IT manager in Dubai, said.

Those higher up on the social ladder are in a fix. “Most middle-class employees have heavy mortgages at hand. Without a job, they find previous luxuries a burden. Lifestyles change. Street food replaces KFC. Neighbourhood shops are preferred over malls. Some people just abandoned their cars before fleeing to India,” he said.

“It’s horrible. You ask for leave and they offer you a termination letter. Sometimes, they fire you on the face, without notice, without explanation. Most of the fired men don’t return home soon. They are told the crisis would be over in a few months and hope to find a job in another company or the same company within the legally allowed six months,” he said.

The Kerala government, sitting on an economy built over remittance money, knows it has a problem at hand.

The Non-Resident Keralites Affairs (Norka) department, intended to look after the 25 lakh-odd expatriate Keralites, is yet to get a formal intimation. “We’re aware of the problem. No individual or association has approached us for help. But we are monitoring the situation,” Norka secretary Sheela Thomas said.