KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday, December 14, 2021, observed that carrying heavy loads on the head or body was ‘dehumanising’ work and a relic of the past. It also asked the government to rehabilitate such workers and ameliorate their plight.
Justice Devan Ramachandran made the observation while considering a petition against nokkukooli (gawking charges). He said headload workers are poor people who have no other job option and their plight was being exploited by certain vested interests including political parties.
“Carrying heavy loads on the head or body for several hours a day leads to muscular-skeletal problems and damages the spine. The practice is not seen anywhere else in the world. (In other countries) they either use machines or employ outsiders, including Indians, for loading activities,” he observed. “How can the state subject our citizens to this torture,” he asked.
“Many political parties want this (practice) to continue for their own reasons, something the Constitution of India cannot permit,” said the court, adding the term ‘headload’ must be changed in the statute — Kerala Headload Workers Act — and replaced with just loading. “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.
Clarifying that the court has no intention of taking away the livelihood of such workers, it further observed that they should be equipped and trained to use machines for carrying out loading activities. While Kerala successfully ended manual scavenging, headloading is taken for granted. “We want them to carry it on their heads,” Justice Ramachandran observed. The government pleader submitted that the state is going to amend the Headload Workers Act.