It was in 1990s that the government started to invite and encourage privatisation of higher education in the State of Kerala, India. As a result self-financing colleges (SFCs) flourished in the state initially in professional and later in all sectors. Along with increasing the opportunities in higher education, these colleges became an easy option of temporary jobs for the educated youth in Kerala. But the colleges became, on the other side, avenues of exploitation to a large extend, not only to students but also to its teaching and non-teaching staff. It was revealed in the survey that most of the teaching and non-teaching staff appointed in these colleges is women. Women labourers, particularly, have a tendency to continue in the job as far as possible due to family, distance and societal compulsions. These labourers are neither organized nor members of any trade unions. When privatisation opened new avenues of development within higher education sector, the same led to massive exploitation of students, teaching and non- teaching staff mainly because the rules and regulations are not implemented effectively. The lack of knowledge regarding labour rights from the side of exploited, their adjusting mentality, the financial plus political support for the managements and absence of competing public sector made things much worse. The paper is a qualitative study into the role, relevance, growth, economy and working conditions of SFCs in the state