Brand Kerala - the rot beneath the hype

A cliff in Varkala

Behind the Chinese fishing nets in Fort Kochi

Vytila, Kochi city

First it was mounts of uncleared garbage that festered on its streets, and sometimes its waterways, that spoiled its picture perfect, freshly broomed look.Then came the unprecedented waves of viral fever and dengue that dented its globally acclaimed public health record.
Now it’s the food served by hundreds of hotels and restaurants that is bringing ill-repute to the state. It can land you in serious trouble and can even kill you as a young boy from Thiruvananthapuram recently learnt.
He, along with many others, ate the middle eastern chicken-roll called “shawarma” from a popular eatery in the state capital and boarded a bus to Bangalore. He also carried a couple of rolls for his onward journey.
On the way, he reportedly developed stomach pain and signs of food poisoning, and subsequently died on reaching Bangalore. Ten others, who ate from the same place ended up in hospitals, one of whom was the son of a popular actor. His entire family was hospitalised. He brought it out to the attention of the media and threatened legal action. The fiercely competitive local media made it big and triggered a chain reaction.
They peeked into several other restaurants and found that what people have been relishing in the state was mostly trash – old, decaying and foul-smelling food prepared by dirty hands in dirty vessels in horrendously unhygienic conditions. To hide the rot, they also added illegal substances.
What followed was a string of raids, not only by the food department, but also by the heads of local civic bodies. In Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi, the Mayors of the corporations went with raid-parties and TV crews. What Kerala saw for the next couple of days was exactly the opposite to the branded visage of state – its dirty kitchens and festering food.
For the first time, the prime time discussions on the sensational political murder of TP Chandrasekharan and the decay in the CPM gave way to discussions on food and hygiene. Meanwhile, there were also reports of people falling sick by food poisoning from various places in the state, a possible case of better awareness leading to a spurt in reporting. Some of the visuals that the TV cameras beamed into the smug middle class homes were gross – meat that was several days old, a kitchen that was also an overflowing latrine, excessively overused cooking oil that resembled grease, unauthorised colours and other additives, unwashed plates and utensils, and grimy kitchens.
The gravity of the situation is borne out by numbers. In the last two days, out of the 1170 odd places raided by the authorities, about half were in bad conditions and were issued notice to clean up and report again. About 70, including some outfits that were at public places such as train and bus stations, were closed down because they were too dangerous. The raids that began in different parts of the state by a severely understaffed food inspection wing are continuing. However, many of the cases that they will report might not be legally tenable because the food department does not have sufficiently equipped labs where the food samples could be tested for harmful organisms and impurities.
Interestingly, the worst culprits are two imports to Kerala’s eclectic menu: shawarma and badam milk. Shawarma came from the middle-east about a decade ago, thanks to the millions of labourers in the gulf who sustain the state’s economy, and badam milk came through the migrant workers that started flooding the state a few years go. In Kochi, migrant workers pushing carts selling badam milk is a common sight.
With the risking stink of their kitchens, the hotel and restaurants association has banned shawarma across the state as a face-saving measure. Authorities in Kochi banned push carts selling badam milk.
While the hotels and restaurants should indeed be held responsible for the gross neglect of food safety and cheating the public, the demographic transformation, the socio-economic mismatch, and the lifestyle aspirations of the people of Kerala, whether rich or poor, are also responsible for the increasing rot.
The state, which was once a rare mascot of high human development in resource-poor settings, is in decay. Organised crime in the state is on alarming rise (highest IPC crimes among mega cities reported in Kochi and and highest level of violent crimes, in Kerala, according to NCRB) which attract a lot of unemployed youths looking for quick bucks; and prohibitive labour charges have seen an influx of tens of thousands of migrants workers from West Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, that has also begun to affect the unique characteristics of the state and in some cases, led to social tension.
Its higher education sector, particularly private engineering colleges, is in a mess that even invited strict observations from the Kerala High Court and unemployment is about 10%, without taking into account huge levels of under-employment. The labour force, traditional farming sector (other than cash crops) and whatever little industrial activities left in the state are under severe stress; but the dominant demographic changes, thanks to the gulf-remittances and IT employees, have considerably transformed general lifestyle or rather lifestyle aspirations of people.Eating out, or take-away from road-side makeshift fast-food joints is a common element of the new lifestyle. The state has about 21000 + plus estimated eateries, not to mention the hundred of push-carts and nondescript outfits. The state’s food inspection wing, with a handful of staff, is too small to conduct periodic inspection of these places.
The Bureau of Indian Standards has a new set of benchmarks for places where we eat and the Speaker of the Kerala assembly has asked for a report on what the government has done to stem the decay.
But as usual, a tragic death and an expedient media have raised the stink and triggered the subsequent spurt of activities. The present government interventions and social vigilance will soon die down till another unfortunate tragedy happens.The last time it was in the state’s trademark toddy shops. Perhaps next time, it will be somewhere else, for the social rot is really spreading fast.