If there is one thing women in Kerala don’t like to talk about but men love to discuss, its politics.
One of the most prominent issues in the Kerala elections after corruption and liquor policy is unemployment or under employment of the educated youth. In a state with the highest rate of literacy, the rate of unemployment is also the highest in the country.
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Hundred percent literacy does not ensure jobs since the quality of education is also a problem. With higher marks and brilliant results, Kerala universities, schools and colleges seem to be producing literates with a limited skill set.
Historically, the kingdom of Travancore had a robust education system. With the arrival of Christian missionaries who insisted on building a school next to every church, the education system became even better.
It was easy for the successive Communist governments in Kerala to engrain education across sections in society. But things seem to have halted since then.
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Limited work opportunities across the state and low wages and salaries make things worse.
Many in Kerala believe that the ‘educated’ Keralites look to greener pastures – the Indian metros, the gulf countries, the European countries and the West – to escape the political mess and corruption in the state. They come back only to retire, by which time any desire to reform the system is long dead.
Thirty-one-year-old Sajith, a Keralite by birth and a Bangalorean by choice, spends almost every second weekend at his home city Thiruvananthapuram. While he accepts that the Gulf and the Middle East crisis is impacting Kerala’s remittance economy, he banks upon the Mallu-spirit to travel to the furthest corners of the world and chase opportunities.
Kerala seems to be a state sinking under the weight of its brilliant social statistics.
With the oil price crash and Middle East crisis resulting in massive job cuts, the next government has a huge task at hand – to create jobs in the state.
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