Kumbanad, a small town nestled in Kerala‘s Pathanamthitta district, seems frozen in time. The quiet streets, lined with swaying coconut palms, lead past a few bakeries and the modest panchayat office, where a lingering sense of isolation hangs in the air. As dusk falls, the silence deepens.
Amidst this calm, a two-storeyed house looms, its rusted gates firmly secured and forgotten. Nearby, other once-grand homes and humble dwellings are overtaken by nature, with overgrown weeds climbing their walls and dust gathering thick on windows. Many carry “For Sale” signs, while old age homes hint at the stories of an abandoned generation, as the youth seek opportunities abroad.
“Across Kerala, locked houses are now a common sight, often left empty for years. In some cases, no one remembers who the original owners were,” says S Irudaya Rajan, chair of the International Institute of Migration and Development. Rajan explains that many first-generation NRIs, especially those who moved to the Gulf, built homes with dreams of returning to retire. However, as their children opted for lives abroad, these houses became “dead money” once the parents passed away.
A 2018 Kerala Migration Survey conducted by Rajan and KC Zachariah found that one in every five households in Kerala has a member who has migrated abroad, fueling this widespread phenomenon.
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