THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, 26 March 2003 — Every picture of the Iraq war on TV sends a chill down the spine of two Kerala districts.
For, Malappuram and Pathanamthitta districts account for the largest number of households with expatriates in the Middle East. And any amount of assurance has not been able to quell the fears of families there.
Annie, a middle-aged housewife, said: “I am definitely worried about my husband who is in Kuwait. My three children and I have not slept properly since the war began.
“My husband had to undergo a bypass surgery eight months ago, but he still works hard in Kuwait for us. He says there is no problem in Kuwait. But I think we are in a crisis.”
A study by the Center for Development Studies here says the district with the largest number of expatriates per household is Malappuram, with 49.2 people in the Middle East per 100 households. Pathanamthitta follows, with 33.1 people per 100 households.
As for absolute numbers, Malappuram leads with a staggering 300,000 expatriates, followed by Thrissur with 162,000, Thiruvananthapuram with 131,000 and Pathanamthitta with nearly 100,000.
Kutty Ahmed Kutty, a United Democratic Front (UDF) legislator from Thirurangadi in Malappuram, said ever since the build-up to war, tension has been rising in families that have expatriates in the Middle East, especially in Kuwait.
“The two concerns raised by families that have relatives in the Middle East are about safety and jobs. Despite frequent telephone calls from the expatriates, there has been no decrease in tension here,” Kutty told IANS.
Fears about an exodus from the Gulf are also linked to remittances.
The CDS study shows that Malappuram accounted for a staggering 6.29 billion rupees of Kerala’s total 33.77 billion rupees annual remittances in 1998.
Mammen Mathai, a legislator from Pathanamthitta district, said war scenes on TV created most of the fear.
“During the 1991 Gulf war, TVs were a scarce commodity. But now that is not the case now.
“I spoke to several people in Kuwait and despite their assurance that everything was safe there, near and dear ones here are not willing to take that,” said Mathai.
The CDS study shows that apart from cash remittances, the total value of goods received by Malappuram households with expatriates is around 1.5 million rupees in a single year.
