SABARIMALA: The agitation carried out by the devotees at Sabarimala and nearby areas against the recent Supreme Court's verdict of allowing women of all ages to the hill shrine has affected the lives of dolly carriers (a palanquin-type carriage in which the elderly and the physically-challenged devotees are carried).
Fearing protests, devotees who depend on the dolly system at Sabarimala, have stayed away from visiting the hill shrine. This has put the lives of over 2500 dolly workers in a fix.
According to the dolly workers, ever since the temple was reopened for the monthly Pooja, two days ago, they could get only 50 devotees to Sannidhanam.
“ Every year when the temple opens for monthly pooja, we used to get minimum of 250 each day. But during last three days, we could only receive around 0 trips. The SC verdict really made our life terrible as we are struggling to meet our daily expenses. This is the first time, we are facing such a situation,” said 45-year-old Santhosh, a dolly worker, who has been engaged in the work for the last 20 years.
According to workers, they received over 4000 trips last year.
“We have 300 dollies and over 3000 workers are here, most of them hail from different parts of the state. But this year several of them not even received a single trip. The SC verdict has really affected people like us, and it had resulted in deteriorating the law and order situation at the shrine. Now the devotees are scared of entering Sabarimala,” said Divakaran another dolly carrier, as he awaits devotees at KSRTC Pampa Station.
“Several workers are going back to their homes as they not getting customers, " added Divakaran. The crisis was there even after the dolly workers increased their fee from Rs 3400 to Rs 4200.
“ We have to give Rs 200 to the Dewaswom Board. We had a positive feeling that the fare hike would benefit us this season. We don't know what will happen when the season starts next month. We are really worried. If the elderly people stopped visiting Sabarimala, our future will remain a question mark,” said another dolly worker, when asked about the future of dolly business in Sabarimala.