Kerala youngsters flock neighbouring states for professional education

THIIRUVANANTHAPURAM — Students from Kerala are migrating to the neighbouring states in large numbers seeking higher and professional education despite the state opening up its education sector to private players in a big way attracting large investments nearly a decade ago.

According to a comprehensive study on patterns of migration and its impact on society conducted by the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) with the federal and state funding, there are 311,000 students from Kerala pursuing professional education outside the state.

The trend seems to be the consequence of a lack of educational opportunities within the state, especially for those affected by community reservations. The availability of easy student loans from commercial banks has become handy for those who want to study elsewhere.

Started a decade ago in the Pathanamthitta-kottayam corridor, the study says, student migration has by 2011 increased and spread to all districts and all com- munities in the state.

Since 2008, student migrants have become the number one group in the various employment categories among people leaving Kerala for other states.

The number showed steady increase from 241,000 in 2008, 228,000 in 2003, and 99,000 in 1998. Students were 30.5 per cent of the out-migrants in 2011 and 26.4 per cent in 2008.

Student out-migrants outnumbered job-seeking out-migrants since 2008. Students were 107 per cent of the job-seekers among the out-migrants in 2011. They were only 32 per cent of the job-seekers in 1998.

According to Kerala Migration Study 2011 led by professors K C Zachariah and Irudaya Rajan, 60 per cent of the student migrants were males, 51 per cent were Hindus, 39 per cent Christians and 10 per cent Muslims.

The principal districts of origin of student migrants were Ernakulam, Kottayam and Wayanad.

Pathanamthitta district, which pioneered student migration early in the century, contributed less than three per cent of the total student migration in 2011. In the sample, all the student migrants from Pathanamthitta district were girls and no boys at all but the actual figures may differ.

“In the past, the youth used to get their education within the state and move out to other states for employment. Now, Kerala’s youth move out to other states for education and to other countries for employment,” it says. “A flip side of this trend is that many of the youth who get educated outside the state never come back. They tend to get employed in other states or abroad”.

The study says remittanc- es were 31.23 per cent of the state’s net state domestic product (NSDP). The state’s per capita income was Rs 52,084 (2010), without taking into consideration remittances to the state, but it stood at Rs 68,375 if remittances were also included.

Remittances are 1.6 times the revenue receipt of the Kerala government, 6.2 times what the state gets from the centre as revenue transfer.

It is more than twice the government’s annual expenditure. It is more than 60 per cent of the state’s public debt.