Kochi: The Kerala High Court said on Tuesday that carrying heavy loads on the head or body by a person was a ‘dehumanising activity’ and termed the statute- Headload Workers Act, which permits this was a relic of the past. The court directed the state to take steps to ameliorate the plight of such workers.
‘Headload has to be abolished, not loading. It (headload) is a dehumanising activity. How can we subject our citizens to this torture’, the High Court said. The court said that headload workers are poor people who have no other job options and their plight is sought to be exploited by certain vested interests, including many political parties, for their own reasons. Justice Devan Ramachandran further said that headload workers should be equipped and trained to use machines for carrying out loading activities and clarified that the court has no intention of taking away the livelihood of such persons.
The judge said carrying heavy loads on the head or body for several hours a day for several years leads to muscular-skeletal problems and damages the spine and nowhere else in the world such activity is undertaken by the citizens there. The court said this sector was unorganized, as they were not trained, and vested interests want it to continue like this.
‘Can any civilised society agree to this? We are probably not as civilised as we think we are. We are reinforcing and perpetuating this activity. The statute is also reinforcing this activity. These people should be rehabilitated, not thrown out of their jobs. The statute is 50 years old. The situation has changed now. It is high time the government thought of ameliorating their plight’, the court said. It further said that while manual scavenging has stopped in Kerala, headload activity has been taken for granted.
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The court had on the last date of hearing said the demand for gawking wages in the State has given a bad name to Kerala and it was being identified with nokkukooli. The state government told the court that the Headload Workers Act was going to be amended to enable the workers Board to initiate disciplinary action against those who demand ‘nokkukooli’ or gawking wages. It said that a summary of the draft amendment was ready. The court said it wants to know when the amendment would be enforced and in what manner and asked the government to inform it by the next date of hearing on December 21. The Kerala government on November 1 had told the court that a ‘No Nokkukooli 2021’ campaign has been started by it and that it was strictly against the demand of gawking wages and would not be protecting anyone who indulges in this activity. On May 1, 2018, the government banned the practice of demanding gawking wages.
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