Giant windmills welcomed us as our vehicle entered Kanjikode on a hot morning. This suburb in Palakkad’s Pudussery panchayat houses Kerala’s second-largest industrial area, but there is no hustle-bustle in the area that one normally associates with a thriving manufacturing hub. Banners at a makeshift pandal outside the BEML’s complex point to the protest meeting held recently against the privatisation of the blue-chip PSU.
We met a couple, Ramaswamy, 75, and Bhagyawathi, 65, who are waiting for the bus to take them to a worksite at Meenakshipuram, the district’s eastern region bordering Tamil Nadu. “These were the land of our ancestors,” says Ramaswamy, pointing at the industrial park on the opposite side of the road. Over a century ago, his family along with others came from TN to settle here. Their land holdings shrank over generations, and when the government decided to build the WISE Industrial Park, he was left with about 4.5 cents of land, which the government acquired some years ago. “The government compensated us by giving some land nearby and money to build a small house,” he says.
But the industrial park has not created jobs for residents here. While the couple’s son was employed during the construction phase of the park, they were left to fend for themselves once it was developed and new companies set up units. “We don’t have any complaints as our children are not educated,” says Bhagyawathi. Their granddaughter goes to college and they are confident she can find a job in one of the factories in the park after graduation. They are happy as both of them receive government pension.
The sentiment is, however, not shared by everyone. Velayuthan, 75, who we met at a nearby shop, says hundreds of people, including his two sons, have lost jobs as companies downed their shutters in the past one to two years at the industrial park. According to him, at least 200 people lost jobs due to the closure of the Pepsi unit alone. “The unit was closed down as workers demanded regularisation of their jobs,” he says. “All the talk of honey and milk is an eyewash,” he says.
Velanthavalam -- the lottery hub
The next stop is Velanthavalam, sharing its border with TN, which supplies the bulk of vegetables to Kerala. The area is occupied by hundreds of lottery vendors, revealing what keeps the economy going here. Daily, people from TN cross the border to reach Velanthavalam to buy and sell Kerala lottery tickets, which are drawn everyday. “We earn about Rs 500 per day if we sell Rs 5,000 worth of lottery tickets,” says Ramaswamy, 67, who travels from his house in Coimbatore everyday to sell tickets here. Ask him about the elections, and he says it’s going to be DMK in TN. He has no clue about the elections here.
After the declaration of the assembly elections, the TN police have tightened the inspection on lottery ticket buyers, forcing people to keep the tickets they bought in the shop itself. “They buy the tickets, write down its number on a piece of paper and keep it while the original tickets are kept in the shop,” says Sasikala, 40, who sells the tickets on a makeshift stand on the bridge leading to TN. A native of Vazhukkal in TN, Sasikala’s elder son is employed in a small innerwear and leather goods firm though he has completed BCom, while her second son is pursuing graduation. “Earlier, I earned around Rs 800 per day. Now, things are tough. I’ll be lucky if I get Rs 300-400 a day,” she says.
A vendor tells us that about Rs 50,000-75,000 worth of lottery tickets are sold daily in this area. Are people winning? “I don’t remember anyone winning any big prize, but yes, some win Rs 5,000 cash once a while,” he says. This encourages fortune-seekers to return to this small Kerala village from across the border in hordes.
Some 50m away is Sri Dharmasala mandi, the largest vegetable market in Velanthavalam, where agri-commodities are auctioned off to wholesalers and retailers. This season, the harvest has been bad and farmers are hit hard, not just due to low production but also declining prices, says Govinda Swamy, who runs this mandi. Discussions on the Centre’s farm laws are very much alive here. “The new laws will stifle farmers,” says Senthil Kumar, a worker at the market.