Key Points
Daringbadi, Odisha: A huge, unpainted house stands on the outskirts of Jidingimala village, in an area surrounded with forests and hills, in Odishas Kandhamal district..
In 2017-18, the Kerala State Planning Board, an advisory board under the state government, estimated that Kerala had 3.1 million migrant labourers from northern and eastern states such as Odisha..
According to the Kerala-based Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development, an organization that studies migration, migrants send home at least 20,000 crore every year..
Titto MJ started Excel Cabs, a 35-seater bus service, during the covid-19 lockdown, when migrants from central Kerala were looking for a reliable transport service to take them back home to Darringbadi..
Meanwhile, migration watchers say Kerala is more empathetic to the cause of workers because of its own historyMalayalis associate the incoming migrant labour with their own exodus for years, most notably to the Gulf countries..
