Kerala - Kochi   

Migrating to difficult times

Photo: Vipin Chandran

HOT ISSUE: A migrant labourer in Kochi ironing clothes.

KOCHI: Chottu makes delicious chicken fried-rice for his customers, but life back home has turned sour — thanks to inflation touching new highs.

An expert in Chinese cooking, this youngster from Nepal is employed at a restaurant-cum-bakery near Edappally.

“Bhai saab, idhar mahangayi bahut zyada hi hai” (Brother, here inflation is quite high), he said, while tossing the fried-rice in the pan on a sunny day.

Like Chottu, hundreds of migrant labourers who have made Kochi their second home struggle to make ends meet with prices of essential items remaining high.

Purab, who works for a contractor in Perumbavur, is equally worried. “The price of rice has gone up here,” he said.

A native of Jalpaiguri in West Bengal, Purab and his friends have now started sharing the monthly expenses. “Pehle do bar chaval khatha tha. Ab ek hi bar khata hai saab” (We used to have rice twice earlier. Now, we have reduced it to once daily,) he said. Sakthivel, a native of Tamil Nadu, echoed similar sentiments. “I don’t want my son to iron the clothes. I want him to concentrate on his studies. But there is no way out. His service helps me save at least Rs.200, which was earlier given to a person from my native place,” he said.

“The cost of employing a person for the job has gone up. They ask for more money everyday saying that prices have gone up. I don’t think life would be easy with expenses skyrocketing,” he said.

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