Content courtesy: Malayalam Samayam

KOCHI: Perumbaavoor can be called "Peru bhai oor" as 'bhai' is a common word used to denote a migrant labourer in Kerala who has come from North India. More than one lakh people residing in Kochi's Peumbavoor are North Indians.If all these migrant workers decide to go home together, the construction work in Kerala will literally shut down. Hotels will be shut as they are the main supply boys. Factories will be shut, even agriculture will seize as Kerala is literally dependent on them. As per records, there are 30 lakh migrant labourers in Kerala at present.The state-wise percentage of migrant labourers residing in Kerala is: West Bengal (20), Bihar (18.10), Assam (17.28), UP (14.83), Odissa (6.67) and rest of the states (23.13). A migrant worker, on an average, sends Rs 70,000 to his home a year.Perumbavoor has benefitted a lot from them. Hotels and mobile phone recharge shops, in particular, were the two trades which helped the city flourish, and this wouldn't have been possible without the bhais.The market and streets are full of migrat labourers on Sundays, due to which, the natives of the city don't even come out on Sundays. So much so, that there is a sunday market known as "Bhai Bazaar".North Indian groceries, masalas, pani puri, dresses, magazines, movie CDs, etc are all available there. On Sundays especially, only those items are available in the shops. Film songs of other languages are played on the loudspeakers in the Sunday markets.S, what is it that attracts so many migrant labourers to Kerala? A migrant labourer from Bihar, who would get Rs40 at his native place, makes a minimum of Rs 600 in Kerala. This is what attracts them here. After sending the money home, the labourers enjoy themselves with the rest of the money that is left with them.The city has Bengali hotels as well. Churches here, have gospels in Oriya on Sundays. Imams from Bengal and Odisha give their speeches in their respective languages.Private bus boards and private bus stand announcements, theatres, shop boards all appear in Bengali, Hindi and even in Oriya.Samay - which is an Odiya magazine is in popular demand here. Magazines in Assamese like Priyasakhi, Vismay and magazines from other regions like Sarasalin, Grihashobha, Muktasa, Suman Saral, Manohar, Kahani, Sathyastha etc are also available.Theatres in Perumbavoor like Jyoti and Lucky also play Bengali, Oriya and Assamese movies on Sundays. There is a Gandhi Bazaar here in the city, where migrant laboures take shop space on rent and carry out their own business.