Tyranny of the organized - Watch Fee?
Sunday, December 3rd, 2006
On December 1st, 2006 Kerala high court in its judgment said that all kinds of watch fee (“nokkku kooli”) are illegal. It also directed administration to take action against political & muscle power backed tyranny of head load workers. One can only hope that the rule of law prevails in the state.
What is watch fee (nokkui kooli)? Consider that you have some stuff to unload from a lorry. If you decide to do it yourself you need to pay the head load workers free money. They will just watch the proceedings and then collect money. Sounds unbelievable? Well, it has been like this in Kerala for some time.
I remember an incident that happened recently. It was about a week ago that I went to Trivandrum central station to receive a relative. He was coming by the Venadu Express train which reaches around 10PM. As I waited on platform 4, I noticed that it was nearly empty except for a few guys who were in red uniform. They are the official porters at the station. I had come pretty early and noticed that they were waiting for more than an hour.
They like me were waiting for the Venad. When the train came some of them started running from one end to the other of the platform. They were looking for work. But no one was calling them. People were struggling with luggage but still looked terrified when the porters offered help!
Interestingly that day they didn’t get even a single customer. I felt very sorry for them. I was waiting with these guys and I knew this is their livelihood. These guys are probably the sole support behind their families. I also felt sorry for the old woman who got down from the train. She was carrying two heavy bags which clearly was too heavy for her. She looked financially well off but still was not taking the help of porters!
This situation is unique in Kerala. The reason is simple. Head load workers and porters have a very bad reputation in Kerala. There are many among them who bully and fleece money from people. This group of workers have the made the life of others a living hell.
The previous Kerala government had passed a “head load workers act” to protect people from the tyranny of the workers. But so far the implementation of this had been poor. Rates for all kinds of loading and unloading work are fixed and are known to all. The willpower of the administration to implement these rates is lacking. So suffering for the people of Kerala is bound to continue…
