Monumental IT parks , gargantuan structures of development, an unbridled exhibits of the various autographs of glitz. Grisly murders, inconceivable rapes, out of the world scams, a thriving militia of moral-protectors.

When the floodgates of Indian economy opened in the last decade of the milinuem gone by, few would have imagined the society that would be brought forth 20 years later. From a facilitator of attainable realities, money in itself became the dream to be chased; a pursuit that would eventually rewrite India. A new class emerged whose brand ambassadors made more money in the first few months of their first job than what their parents retired with. Kerala always had an educated middle class, a product of various social and political reforms, groomed by a long tradition of quality primary education system facilitated by various minority institutions and pragmatic higher educational options and decisions. Like their parents who reaped the benefits of the Nehuruvian economic model by working outside the state namely, Bombay and the Gulf. Or so one was made to believe by the countless narratives, which made-in-Madras Malayalam cinemas .of that period offered. The buzz word for the post liberalisation professional became American on-site jobs or migrations to the Silicon Valley. The restless 70’s saw their progeny become part of the global community created by the demand for cheap white collar workers and the supply of skilled and eager work force. The disparity of pay structured by the proverbial carrot of future prosperity created a naive society taking its first tottering steps towards global adulthood.

The most prominent signature of economic liberalisation policies in Kerala is Technopark, founded in 1995 and is still the largest IT sector job provider in the state. Its long term implications, though, go far beyond its mere job generating potential. A new culture, facilitated by infrastructural developments and aligned lifestyle changes, was introduced into the society. Yet the oldest IT Park in India remains the lowest income earner among all the IT Parks that came up later in India.

Instant Money Magic

According to Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, the former Home Minister of Kerala, more than Rs 10,000 crore of hawala money is transacted in the state. The assets of various Mafia groups in Kerala were estimated at, by DGP Jacob Punnoose, to be around Rs 50,000 crore. Kochi hosts capital to two of the major mafias among them— the land mafia and the money mafia. The mafia seeks to exploit greed. That there is no limit to the money you can accumulate, provided you have your money-thinking brain cells oriented in the proper direction was firmly established as a possibility by the mid 90s—though yet to be a rampant practice in the real world, its theoretical prospects, beyond doubt, were well entrenched. That was also the period when scams of hitherto unheard magnitude (though the figures now look like molehills compared to the mountainous amounts of graft money in the modern world) had rocked the nation—Hawala and the Harshad Mehta stock exchange scams being the show stealers. For a nation, which had yet to come to terms with the rules of the game controlling the newly liberalised market system, these scams shattered the bedrock of Nehruvian middle class economic system piled carefully on the dictum of “lot of hard work, and a little bit of corruption.”- By the dawn of the new millennium, gone were the days when people set the limits of the money they could amass in terms of the work they did. In this new world order, it was not a difficult task for the mafia groups to establish a parallel government, run it with the money power they possessed and the might they gained by acting as a pressure group on the government of the ‘real’ world, and protect its subjects. Two of the major networks through which the money mafia operates are small scale financing and direct marketing. Several money chain groups, some of them big fishes operating even on a national scale, are active in Kochi. Its running theme is very simple and strikingly sinister: to turn an individual’s network of relations with other individuals of the society into currency; a remarkably powerful exhibition of modern day ways of alchemy. Devi, a middle aged housewife in Kakkanadu, Kochi, who lost a substantial amount of money in one such scheme, says: “The initial catch is the small amount of money they offer you when you induct your first recruitment in the network. The precise and rationally flawless ways in which they present the arithmetic of the money that can possibly be yours, and the presentations of real-life success stories—of those who bought cars and even flats are the knockout punches which then settle the deal.” Once such networks are formed, whose members are then linked by a primal craving to make more, more and more money, there automatically open up a multitude of passageways to darker worlds of criminal indulgences. As Devi says, “Once you are sucked in, you will be swallowed.” It only gets more tragic. Radhika, another housewife at Fort Kochi, who reportedly lost a huge amount of money in one money chain network, and subsequently committed suicide, was initially portrayed as a victim of domestic violence. But within a week of investigation the claim was found to be untrue.

Dr. Sr. Teresa CSST
Principal, St. Teresas College
Our college started when women has no freedom, as a motto of women empowerment. We are continuing with single sex education only because we started with a cause and we are still carrying it forward. Not because women are safe in women only college. They seems to be facing bigger threats in their homes rather they are free here they gets lot of opportunities here.
I don’t think that students will get matured only by co-education. Mingling with opposite sex is not a necessity, education is not merely mingling it is something more that. Here students get a lot of opportunities to develop their talents. In a mixed college a girl might not come forward in a similar situation. We are polishing students. We are giving them preparation for them to adjust to any situations in future and life coping skills along with the education.
I don’t agree with women’s only professional colleges because professional education needs lot of give and take and sharing, it will only come through the interaction of both sexes.

AjithKumar , D.I.G and Commissioner of Police Cochin City
The so called rise of crime rates is also because of the rise in reporting of crime. This is possible in Kerala because people have easy access to police stations, and there almost never a hesitancy to file a complaint. There is still a lot of faith in completion of investigation and catching the criminal.

The Kerala Psyche

The nature of moral policing in Kerala is also different from rest of India. Moral impositions arise in most cases not from right wing organizations rather it cut across party lines. The psyche of these impositions resides in gender relation crisis that Kerala is undergoing. There seems to a sexual repression among the Malayalee males. What else can account for the rising crime against women and children in the state? Rape and murder of commuters or moral policing of women travelling at night, under age prostitution, and rampant child abuse are becoming regular breaking news. The new helpline for child abuse victims run by Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan were literally flooded with calls when they started in August. A reaction which the authorities never expected, the Mahila Shikshan Kendras meant to house the children is over crowed.

There is constant segregation of gender in our educational institutes. New professional colleges are coming up which advertise their single gender system as desirable. Even colleges that have co-education are promoting segregation within their campuses. Most colleges in the state have banned tight T-shirts and jeans, stopped film dance from schools and unofficially monitor students of the opposite gender who talk to each other for uncommonly long time. These unimaginative changes in the educational sector become contradictory when these students both professional and non-professional, start careers in a 24/7 work culture. A systemic change rather than such cosmetic restrictions is necessary to mould the coming generations in a positive manner.

Thasni Banu, I.T Professional and Moral Police victim
When we were trying to leave the auto driver verbally abused me. I too reacted strongly. He slapped me hard on my face. He then twisted my right arm backwards. By then, people had started gathering and the driver presented us before them as some sort of ‘wrong-doers’.

Rekha.C.Babu, CEO BCG Group
“I have always delegated my work and ensured that I’m never in a compromising position because of my gender. In the initial days my employees were hesitant to say that it was my sister and I who owns the business. Instead they would say our father; Mr. Babu C. George owns the business. I have travelled across the world and the only place I was detained for travelling alone was in Thiruvananthapuram airport and that too in the name of ensuring security of women. It is in the nature of malayalees to find out what others are doing. Why does society pry into the business of an individual?”