Click to play videoCochin: This Onam meet god's own country's biggest manpower exports - nurses. Like each year, this year too they will be celebrating onam away from home.
Hema, a nursing student is all set to travel to the US to pursue a career in nursing. She would become one among the 35,000 Malayali nurses who migrate each year to other countries in search of work .
I am eagerly waiting to go to the US. That has been my dream from the moment I took up this profession. Outside India the remuneration for a nurse is excellent and we have a good standard of living," said Hema.
Nurses are Kerala's biggest manpower exports. 95 per cent of Malayali women working abroad are nurses. Most of them pass out from the 149 govt recognised nursing schools and colleges, which is the biggest number in the country.
"For the last so many years we have been training nurses at our institute and the main objective of almost everyone who comes here is to get a job either in US UK or US. The salary is obviously the main attraction," said Director of Lissy Institute of Nursing, Father Mathew Mulanthotty.
While the US, UK and West Asia are popular destinations, Malayali nurses also end up in hospitals across the country. Many like Preethimoyi and Smita moved to the Capital to further their goal of finding work overseas. 80 per cent of the nurses in Delhi's hospitals are from Kerala.
"There's a saying that wherever you go you wil find at least one Malayali among 10 people. In kerala, Malayalis are very hardworking people that is why they come in to this profession. Literacy is hight there and in every home there is at least one nurse," said nurse at Max Hospital, Smita.
"When I first came to Delhi I didn't know anyone. It was very difficult and I miss my parents," said Preethimoyi.
And on Onam, all they can do is celebrate with each other.
The Malayali nurse has become the symbol of migrant workforce everywhere. More than 400 nurses live in this south Delhi neighbourhood. But moving away from home to pursue this noble vocation doesn't come easy. Not being familiar with the language and ways of the city reduces their bargaining power and even their safety. But it's on days like this that they most miss home.
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