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Indian 'Success Story' Funded by Migrants

Money mailed home makes possible Kerala's leftist showcase

By Nick McMaster, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 7, 2007 3:28 PM CDT

(Newser) – The South Indian state of Kerala, long touted for achieving a high quality of life in the face of dire poverty, relies heavily on earnings sent from menial jobs abroad, the New York Times reports. Offered as a leftist alternative to market-driven development in poor nations, Kerala is famous for the health care and education given to its populace
despite a per capita income almost $100 lower than the Indian average.

But a third of Keralites are supported by funds from migrant labor, the Times notes. Earnings sent home from jobs in the Persian Gulf mask high chronic unemployment and are the lifeline of the state's social achievements, critics say, including literacy and life-expectancy rates comparable to the developed world.

[Images (4)]

[Videos (1)]

The Indian state of Kerala has long held a reputation of protecting its impoverished. This has not stopped many from taking brutal jobs abroad. (KRT Photos)

"Remittances from global capitalism are carrying the whole Kerala economy," said S. Irudaya Rajan, a demographer at the Center for Development Studies, a local research group. "There would have been starvation... (Magnum Photos)

Many have praised the "Kerala model" as a people-centric alternative to market-driven development. (Magnum Photos)

Sun rises over a lagoon in the Indian state of Kerala. Famously poor, citizens tend to be cared for, and live nearly as long as Americans on average. (Magnum Photos)

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Indian 'Success Story' Funded by Migrants