Sanjose A Thomas

Kerala can be rightly regarded as a cultural mosaic than that of a state which houses different cultural traditions, different value systems, different racial stocks, different national identities, different linguistic groups which all came here right from the beginning of the new era which is often designated as the Christian Era (C.E). The Jewish civilization found Kerala as the safest haven when they went through different forms of persecution initially from the Roman’s and later from many others which lasted till the last century in the form of the Nazi holocaust which killed and impoverished millions of Jews and even rendered many of them homeless. Later we saw the European invasion which lasted for another three centuries that began from the Portuguese and ended up with the establishment of the English rule who controlled entire Malabar region directly and brought Travancore and Kochi under their suzerainty. Even much before the European take over Kerala witnessed a strong Aryan in – migration which happened in different forms and through different people which gave us the taste of Sanskrit almost very strongly in our language which unlike other Dravidian languages has become more sanskritic in content and usage. The influx of Tamil Brahmins as refugees who later started joining Travancore state service in large numbers especially during the reigns of MarthandaVarma, Dharma Raja, SwathiThirunal Rama Varma and even afterwards is a typical example of the same. Thus right from the beginnings of the annals of history Kerala remains a preferred destination for migrants coming from all around the world who were gladly accepted and were allowed to infuse themselves with the life and culture of Kerala.

Kerala started loosing its pre eminent position as a preferred place to get in and settle owing to many factors and out of which our apathy to industrial sector played the most vital part. When Bangalore emerged as an IT hub, Hyderabad as an industrial hub, Telangana as a production unit, Kerala lagged far behind responding weakly to this growth potential and sometimes even taking a recalcitrant position to the growth options available before it. This was slowly reflected in the investment policy of the state and had its reverberations in almost all sectors especially on the migration trends in the state. The process of migration got reversed in such a way that it lead to out – migration which almost got echoed in distress migration due to lack of opportunities for youngsters in Kerala. This had a profound effect on Christian families especially those belonging to the middle and upper class stratum. This was perhaps a long process which at first got manifested in the gulf boom in the 1980’s that led to large scale migration for making a living including skilled, semi – skilled and even unskilled professionals. Now again the trend has a new dimension which involves preference for employment outside and in even acquiring citizenship in other countries and the gradual decline in the number of qualified personnel within the state. The demographic impact this effected on Christian families had many ramifications. On the one side the number of older generation in households increased like anything who are being left at the mercy of professional care givers and on the other hand households which are permanently closed owing to migration are also on the rise. Christian dominated areas/districts like Kottayam, Pathanamthitta and Kollam register largest volume of migration and the entire demographic dynamics of these regions underwent constant transformation especially in the last decade. Here we are moving closer to an alarming situation where on the one side we are registering a declining fertility rate and on the other a drastic reduction in the number of youngsters working/living within Kerala who prefer to move outside and settle in far off lands and even to acquire citizenship in these countries. Christianity as a religion and Catholicism as a sect should see and perceive this matter urgently and leaving aside other factors should take up steps to mitigate this trend or at least offset it so that our steep decline in terms of population can be arrested. Church authorities instead of bringing in unnecessary controversies should refocus their attention to this and should initiate some valid and strong steps to deal with this crisis. If our youngsters prefer New Zealand or Australia or USA or Canada to Kerala then the real reason is not preference or choice alone but the distress created by lack of sufficient employment opportunities and absence of growth drivers in Kerala. Church should now seriously think of setting up committees to study this trend and to suggest measures which are pro – active and relevant to arrest this phenomenon. Mutual bickering and hate propaganda will lead us nowhere unless we formulate a clear cut roadmap involving all stakeholders to tackle this trend at the earliest. Health of our families depend on its members and demographic health of a population solely depends on how it is engaging in healthy debates and how seriously it think about its future and plan it meticulously and systematically. The story of the Parsi community should become an eye opener for all of us.