KOCHI: If Malabar region is the stronghold of Gulf money, Central Travancore is known for its foreign money from across the globe, thanks to the nurses working all over the world.“It was in late 70s that the job aspirants from Central Travancore started migrating to the UK, Germany and other parts of Europe. Seeing their prosperity, a great number of students from Kottayam, Pathanamthitta and Thrissur flew to Europe in mid 90s,” said Shajan Scaria, editor of a UK based portal marunadanmalayalee.com.Economist and chairman of the Centre for Socio-economic and Environmental Studies (CSES) K K George pointed out that students opt for a career in nursing eying opportunities in Gulf, Australia and Ireland.“Only a few pass with required marks. They too have to qualify eligibility tests to go abroad that again demand considerable expenses,” Shajan Scaria said. Finally, majority of them land in private hospitals with paltry wages. Even though an exact statistics is not available, around 2 lakh nurses, predominantly from Central Travancore, are working abroad.This triggered mushrooming of nursing colleges in Kerala.“With in a span of 8-10 years a large number of nursing colleges have blossomed in the private sector. In 2009-10, 9,155 nursing students from both General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) and BSc, who studied in the state alone got registration from the Kerala Nursing Council,” KNC registrar Latha told ‘Express’.Another 18,094 students who studied both GNM and BSc nursing from outside the state also got registered with the KNC.Today, there are 209 General Nursing schools in private sector and 18 in government sector in the state. For BSc nursing colleges the figure is 117, including five in the government sector.When around 30,000 Malayalee students pass out from various institutions from Kerala and other states, labour force is strong and private hospitals find it easy to catch them cheap.For the job aspirants, this and more create hurdles on their way to find a secure and well-paid job.
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