An abandoned town in the world's most populated country | Sound-scape | BBC News India 

Convert the town to an old age sanctuary. Elderly People from all over the world would love to live in a crime free environment. I for one would love to stay there. 😊

I grew up in Kumbanad. 90% of my friends from Kumbanad are married and settled overseas..! When I visit Kumbanad, it really feels 'abandoned'.. Miss the "Star Bakery" at Padinjaare kavala.. So sad to hear this about my hometown.

After 10 years this will happened in all over kerala becuase of the migration happened now in kerala

This will be the situation all over Kerala in some years, educated young people don't want to live in Kerala. These young people make money abroad and build palaces in Kerala but will come once a year for few weeks. Sad 😔

And most families are from the Syrian Marthoma community and Pentecostal community. These people belonged to richer classes in the society and was the first to get English education and the first to migrate from Kerala to USA and European countries. Kumbanad is called Mini America.

This is an old documentary, we need the latest survey list of deserted towns in Kerala 😂.

I have been to Kerala,such beautiful houses

I want to move there, sounds peaceful

It's not just jobs, it's quality jobs that are lacking in Kerala. Nearly 40 lakh other state workers are doing manual labour in Kerala. The new generation don't want to do that kind of manual labourer. They are educated and some are highly educated who seek high quality highpaying jobs which are not available. That's the reason all youngesters are leaving Kerala for good. Plus the freedom and money in deveped countries that they cannot dream of in Kerala.

Kumbanad migrated usa 70 years ago and now most central kerala migrating to UK Canada etc

Was watching video of Shashi Tharoor speaking about this and here it is the actual video just beneath it 😅

This is the same situation in developed nations too. Many old people live alone and a very few working in remote places. Most youth moved to cities or other countries.

This is story of every small village in Konkan Area of Maharashtra

Interesting. I always hesitate to watch any BBC videos.... most of the clips do continue to show the poorer parts of India. When I went to India a year back, it did not look like this in most places. BBC does selective portrayal of India to a complete extent.

The town kumbanad, is really sad 😢 all of the living mates who migrated abroad without caring for their parents and they are built a luxury home and amenities for parents instead of giving self care.the is the new trend of keralite..😢

Don't worry, people from northeast including Bengal started buying land and building house. As kerala people migrate overseas other people from other parts of India will migrate to our place. They get job here and a good income compared to their village. Life will go on like this. Our ancestors too came from somewhere. Actually we keralite much similar to Bengalis than other neighbouring people I felt

Fantastic. If I happened to live in India one day, it would be in that town and nowhere else.

the trend is to build tiny houses plus minimalist lifestyle..

This is a paradise. compared to other parts . which are dirty noisey and smelly due to pop. boom Old people here are luckiest Indian to have such a place

Farm stay in Kerala. The lady has 12 rooms. I am keen to pay & stay for a break

Heartbreaking 😢

Same with many Punjab villages .

This is not a new phenomenon. Just see the luxury apartment building in your neighborhood. atleast half of which will be unoccupied. This has nothing to do with birth rate.

This is hardly a news. Our population growth is grossly imbalanced. In Punjab the fertility rate is 1.5 and has been so for some time. Our national fertility rate is 2.1 and dropping. Only a few communities contribute to population growth. In Uttarakhand, hundreds of villages have been abondoned and the houses are in ruins. Many documentaries about those places are available. There are places where less than 10 people live in a village of about 50 or more houses. The fields, houses and the orchards were abandoned years ago. Jungle is reclaiming them. This is hardly breaking news.

No need for sad ending, people are happy, other than old people in other states

This video has depressed me soooo much 😭😭😭😭

Yes this slowly happening in chennai too...i realized after visiting a township residency area....all there kids are gone abroad not even anywhere within india.....

It is very sad to hear old people are living alone

Half of Kerala will Migrate to foreign countries if given a chance to move in Big cities as facilities and job opportunities will be more. Young Christians from Kerala would like to settle in USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Europe etc. Once they get a permanent residency they take their parents and grand parents with them on visitor visas which are valid for around 6 months. So their ancestral home remains empty for half of the year. Middle East does not allow easy migration otherwise Muslims of Kerala will also do the same. To stop the population from declining States should start giving subsidies to parents to have at least 2 children. Below 2 fertility rate is dangerous as cost of living increases it becomes difficult to afford more children.

Its the fault of the government....when there is good jobs n pay salary is good then people will not go away to other places or to Dubai.... the present govt should see to it... the same situation was happening in Punjab too but now the govt started supplying jobs n good salary so people are not going abroad anymore .. kerala state needs to wake up before its too late .

Jihadis will buy over these places for throw away prices😢😢

Kerala have highly educated people they are migrating all over the world surely after 10 years Kerala become a old age home

A decrease in population is not a bad thing as long as the aged population are being taken good care of.

Excellent video I feel sad for the aged residents and almost deserted houses

"But people hardly come". What a way to end it.

The scary thing is nomads from north india have migrated to kerala and are running mafias!!

Main factor is diminishing birth rate. In many highly literate state of India fertility rate is fast diminishing. My state sikkim also has very low fertility rate of 1.5. It is northern states like bihar and up which is contributing largest no of population. Bihar top the fertility rate of 4 which is almost double of the national average.

Kumband Thiruvalla area has one of the most Pentecostal population in Kerala

Blessings to my favourite plc in India 🇹🇹🙏🌹☮️

This is happening everywhere

Peaceful good for old age people, even realtive and worker cheating them in old age , community place needed so all meet each other

Very sad

I think its a great opportunity for kerala... since it is overcrowded at the moment. If you go to tamil naadu or any other states you will find plenty of vacant land. At the moment kerala has few lands for factory building or big highways and spaces are costly as well. Government should buy over lands like this and give it to corporates for industries or tourism promoters which will bring huge revenue. There are plenty of small towns like this for opportunities like this.

KUMBANAD ❤

Thank God for little mercies. I will be sure to visit this place on my next journey to India.

Same will happen all over Keralam. Because there is no jobs or infra in our state. Many of my relatives lives out of Keralam.😢😢😢

This is typical of what happens when people migrate to other countries looking for better life and settle there, thus abandoning their village.

Considering the birth rates of Kerala, this is not surprising.

How do we start

There still will be Govt employees, trade unions, party comrades left in Kerala.

ya this is the real picher of kerala more than 10 years go kerala is a old age home

Yes of course, we cannot endlessly boast about our young population. Because population do gets aged, it’s just a matter few decades until India is full of middle aged and old aged people more than young people. So we have to capitalise on our youth immediately or else we would definitely face huge crisis in future. But today’s government is more interested in creating new new Hindi-Muslim issues than focusing on development and capitalising our youth. 😢 China did it right, they capitalised their youth population at right time and they got developed. And still they are facing the population crisis with large numbers of old people and very few youth population to take care of them. This situation will definitely come to India within few decades but question is will we be well prepared to face it? No body can stop population from aging, nobody can stop time. Our situation can become even worse than China if we didn’t develop our country to face such problems. And we have to act right now.

Mallus won't settle in Kerala

Same situation in Coastal Karnataka. Only elderly people stay here. Their children go to Bengaluru, Mumbai, and even abroad for livelihood. Elderly population dont get local servents. If they want, they have to hire North Karnataka or North Indian workers

Heart rending. The Parsi community has a similar problem. Bharat’s reproduction rate has fallen below 2.1. It is a canary in the coal mine for days to come.

❤❤ Kerala Beautiful place ❤❤

There are many places in Goa too!

I am living near kumbanad. Most of the car drivers are aged . Its a real struggle to drive on TK road. As there is no one to takecare they have to travel by themselves.

The main problem associated with such incidents is Money! People are running after money - more & more money so that they can buy costly cars, make big houses & gold jewellery etc. But at the end they grow old, rejected by their own families & so on! If all of us want to be computer engineers then, who will be farmers ? Presently most of us want to live a lavish life & not willing to work hard for our daily bread. We all will have to learn how to live a healthy life & healthy life patterns. Otherwise greed will destroy us very soon!

Same Situation in eastern UP villages where family are moving to Mumbai, Delhi

OMG

A decade ago I never saw any other state labour's in Kerala. Now they are seen everywhere. Also Kerala is becoming like North Indian state foul smells everywhere.

I was wrking a bank near by here, had a rented deserted home of around 5000 sq feet,i was along with aged couples, often afraid wen the couple went to hospitals, then moved to another rented home of around 10000 sq feet, i was very much linely there..

There is nothing wrong in having less population in your village. Labour is available in north indian states. Lesser is happier.

Does the narrator have to be so slow?

I wanna live there now. Thanks

finally a good video

It's something true in Kerala but later became a major issue

India should have different population control policies for different regions. States like Kerala and other southern states and other states which has stagnant or declining population record should be encouraged to have more than two kids if they can afford or else be allowed to invite foreigners to make the place their home while states with increasing population or failed family planning measures should be restricted with number of kids parents can have. This will bring equilibrium in the country, will reward people and communities who had performed and will encourage non performing ones to appreciate obeying rules and laws and directives.

💯

The sole reasons are the atrocities of communist party and the ruling party in Kerala state . These leaders also the goons literally ruined this state

Just an Example for an abandoned town in Kerala My roots are from there as well. Land of my fore fathers. There are more reasons why schools are empty and popularion doen , not just there, in Kerala. Corruption and pollution has also set in . India could benefit from population reduction . Even if married , Children will face a bad future if that is a considereation to to put them through that

😢

Kerala ❤

Who maintains the home then ?

Don't worry if keralites migrates abroad people from other states will migrate to here

On the bright side, doing police / doctor job in that town is quite comfortable

Rural population is in decline across globe as people prefer cities with activities and opportunities. Education plays a major role in moving to cities.

people who work in india can barely buy a house in India,mostly government employees,nris,business people can afford to buy houses,then the big mansions where no one lives if they put for sale it's expected big money.

BBC India could've gone on Reddit and someone would've volunteered some real footage and images from Kumbanad. Its disheartening to see that not even that much effort was put in and stock footage and images are used instead. Makes me feel the whole story is probably picked up from WhatsApp without even checking the verasity of it.

It's a Very practrical, ground base reallity

Kerala is developed state in India

How about rallied for airBnB for these individuals for overseas tourist who wants a relax country life holiday

This town and kerala as a whole need to adopt elderly tourist friendly approch, 6 months-1 year long visas for above 65 years old to afford heath care and warm climate for long time... they should be able to farm their own kitchen gardens, may be the keralites who migrated will come back in their old age once kerala become attractive for old aged ones..

Big companies doesnt want to invest in kerala because of all the union blackmailing and bullshit that goes on with it. Its beautiful state and should have been alternative to Hyderabad, Bangalore, gurgaon

The reason is the govt of kerala didnot interested developing industries in kerala. There is job there the educated youth migrated to out side world

God's own country deserted by people.. what a irony

Few villages in Andhrapradesh too witnessing same trend

You just touched the real reason -- family planning. Of course migration to foreign lands. Another reason is labour insecurity. He sows the wind will reap the whirlwind.

Let people escape .They are trying for growth in career and other sectors.

This Kerala place not for normal people, only for politicians, & their criminals

As a Rajasthani from my father's side kerala (kottayam) the place of my mother feels so unique and different..... In my state Rajasthan everyone will keep on producing kids till they have a boy child, coz they are not satisfied with a girl child while i see my aunt (Maasi) in kerala who has 2 daughters the second aunt has 3 daughters and they never thought of having a boy child.... As my mother and father both work in hospital in Rajasthan, there are so many keralite nurses in hospital and one aunty has a single girl child, another keralite aunty has 2 girl child and they really never thought of producing more kids and on the other hand i have a brother who has 2 daughters and at age 37 he still wants to have a boy child.... My Rajasthani uncle (chacha) had 5 daughter but he was only satisfied after having the sixth child as a boy.... As i also have 2 elder sisters my mother said my father insisted her for the third child because he wanted a boy and finally i was born..... And as right now i am in kerala visiting my Nani's home i see buses having Hindu, Christian and islamic picture together in "one single frame" and i wonder how is this possible that people have three different religions picture in on single frame coz in Rajasthan i dont see this much of secularism..... Kerala is beyond my imagination.... It's literally unique when it comes to people's thinking....

I am from there

Same thing happening on the east coast in Andhra

Even our village is empty

This is happening in Kerala because the job opportunity is very poor (Failure) for our young generation.

Seems the forest will reclaim and only the true ones will remain

Mccluskieganj is another example

After few years all village will be like this

The entire Kerala is going to be so. When people feel insecure in own place, they will migrate.