Kerala: Female emigrants top in education

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There is a wide gap between the educational qualifications of women and men from Kerala who emigrate to foreign countries for jobs. The majority of female emigrants  are graduates, while most males have passed only tenth standard. Among the total migrants from Kerala, 48 percent  have education up to tenth class  only, according to a recent survey by the Centre for Development Studies. While 34.6 percent of the female  emigrants  are degree-holders, only 15.2 per cent males are  graduates.

As many as 53 percent of the latter have passed only the tenth exams.   Only 18.1 percent of Kerala emigrants are degree- holders, while another 18.4 percent  have  studied only up to upper primary and tenth level. The number of illiterates is 1.6 percent   and those with primary education but without passing  are 1.8 percent, said the Kerala Migration Survey (KMS) conducted by CDS professor  Irudaya Rajan. According to the preliminary findings of the study, the number of emigrants from Kerala had shown a negative growth for the first time in 2016, whereas number of returnees also had come down.

The survey found that over 30 percent of the emigrants migrated during the age of 20 to 30. While most men migrated during the age of 20 to 30, most women migrated  around the age of 30. United Arab Emirates continues to have the highest number of migrants from Kerala---40.3 percent,   slightly higher than 38.6 recorded in the 2011 edition of KMS. The number of Kerala emigrants in Saudi Arabia slightly came down to 23.9 percent compared to 25.2 in the 2011 survey. Among the male emigrants, 92.3 percent had migrated to Gulf countries and among the females, 71.1 per cent to Gulf countries, said study.