Kerala, as we know it, completes 60 years of existence. Techies in Technopark and beyond know they are stakeholders in the Kerala of today and of tomorrow and because of that very reason many of them say they are proud of the state’s achievements.
Each techie we talked to, immediately, reels out positive stats about Kerala: highest human development index; highest literacy rate; highest life expectancy, “for better or for worse,” highest media exposure; highest mobile penetration; highest home ownership, lowest infant mortality rate; lowest population growth… “There’s a lot to be proud of about Kerala, particularly when you consider these socio-economic development indicators. Many of these achievements we now take for granted, which I think is a feature of an advanced society,” explains Vrinda S.M, an HR executive, at an MNC. “Personally, I think that the best thing about Kerala at 60 is how it still manages to retain that old world charm in the midst of all the change,” she adds.
A cheery group of friends and co-workers, among them Tito S., Reshma P. Chandran, Amal Joy, Sachin J. Thana, Praveen Kumar and Praveen Surendranath, positively gush about their home state. “I’ve travelled fairly extensively and the standard of living in Kerala is much better than what I have observed in other parts of the country,” says Praveen Kumar P.V., a test analyst, elaborating on the points put across by his colleagues.
“Education is a priority for society. People are generally health conscious and many lead active lifestyles. The younger generation, particularly, is conscious about the need for organ donation and voluntary blood donation and palliative care, again a measure of a healthy society. Employment opportunities for non-Keralites are high, particularly in the blue collar sector and, moreover, most such workers enjoy higher wages for labour than elsewhere in India. Youngsters in Kerala appear to be getting more involved in travelling, entertainment, charity works and social activities,” he adds.
Harish Vijayan, a systems analyst at another MNC, believes that the attitudes towards working women have changed for the better. “With the advent of the IT industry and private media networks, society no longer frowns on women who need to work late hours. In fact, many parents now encourage their girls to find a job in these sectors,” he says. “Also, IT and media, being the biggest success stories in Kerala, of late, it means that the endless wait for government jobs, which defined my parents’ generation, is no longer the case. More and more youngsters these days are readily opting for jobs in the private sector, a sign of an advanced society,” he adds.
For many techies, however, the negatives seem to outweigh the positives but they put it across as challenges for Kerala in the decades to come. “Malayalis have undergone a paradigm shift in the past 60 years. What’s most evident about the change in attitude, perhaps, is how English has crept into everyday Malayalam and our mother tongue itself has ceased to be important. The best part is how our sense of humour, that ability to see the lighter side of things and make fun of ourselves, hasn’t deserted us. Only, now, I suspect, it’s taken on a more sinister approach as people, particularly youngsters hung up on social media, take it as a license to ‘troll’ anyone and everything, indiscriminately,” reflects Shyam Rajan (name changed on request), a corporate communications executive.
His colleague Jyothi Vijayakumar, says that Kerala is a land of contradictions. “We celebrate gender equality but we need more open discussions on gender discrimination and we need to be more inclusive towards marginalised groups, including single women, minorities and LGBT individuals. As a people we are politically aware and we have a long tradition of welcoming people of all faiths with open arms but lately it’s all coming to a head, with increasing incidences of violence on both fronts. We have close to 100 per cent literacy but our universities don’t feature in the top 10 percentile. We also need to develop a work culture that accepts manual labour on par with white collar jobs,” she says.
Harish picks up the thread. “We have to also do away with all the misunderstandings about what exactly one means by development. Malls, apartment buildings, light metro and the like are only infrastructure developments, which provide jobs, yes, but only low profile ones. We need to create more jobs that will bring money in to the state coffers.”
