With the rise of the corporate sector, automation replaced manual labour almost entirely, leaving unskilled workers with limited opportunities in areas like railway portering and head-loading.
Published Mar 25, 2025 | 9:00 AM ⚊ Updated Apr 12, 2025 | 11:30 AM
Telangana Government eases work hour norms for commercial establishments. (Representative image).
Synopsis: ‘Nokkukooli’ was a originally humanitarian effort to safeguard workers’ livelihoods amidst rapid industrialisation, a model that, if effectively implemented, could have set a precedent for labour rights in India.
In July 1924, the Great Flood devastated Kerala’s Munnar and Devikulam regions, submerging entire settlements and leaving behind a trail of immense destruction.
Beyond the flood’s chaos, however, lay another, more enduring tragedy, the plight of labourers, whose existence was reduced to mere numbers, their work valued no more than that of animals.
During the 1920s when the deluge — locally called the ‘Flood of 99’ after the Malayalam calendar — hit Kerala, horses, donkeys, and human labourers transported essential goods like rice and coconuts uphill Munnar and Devikulam.
Records maintained by the then Devikulam Tahsildar Daniel showed that a horse carried 36 bundles, while both a donkey and a human labourer carried 18 bundles each up the mountainous terrain.
The most striking revelation was in the wages. For 18 bundles, whether transported by donkeys or humans, were paid 3 British rupees each. Yet, the exact wages of the human labourers remain unrecorded, reflecting their dehumanised status.
This exploitative labour system was deeply intertwined with Kerala’s caste hierarchy, where workers were classified and compensated on par with animals.
“Over the last hundred years, Kerala has gained recognition for its labour reforms and improved worker conditions. But the reality remains that those who once laboured alongside donkeys are now associated with practices like nokkukooli, — or ‘gawking wages’ or ‘wages for (just) looking on’,” researcher S Muhammed Irshad explained.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s recent remarks in the Rajya Sabha triggered widespread debate in Kerala.
While criticising the CPI(M) governance, she remarked, “There (in Kerala), a nokkukooli has to be paid in addition to the actual fee to unload luggage from a bus. In Malayalam, ‘nokku’ means ‘to look’, meaning a person, who may be a CPI(M) cardholder, will get an additional ₹50 for watching another person unload the luggage. That kind of communism has destroyed industry in Kerala.”
She cited Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s past statements, acknowledging that nokkukooli once existed in the state.
“Recently, the Kerala chief minister gave an interview in which he stated that nokkukooli no longer exists, which implies that it did in the past,” she argued.
Sitharaman also asserted that being from the region, she had a deep understanding of the situation.
Madurai, where Sitharaman was born, is not far from Munnar.
Addressing the Kerala Assembly, Industries Minister P Rajeeve accused Sitharaman of making politically motivated and factually incorrect statements.
“Kerala strongly protests the Union finance minister’s remarks,” he said.
“The example she cited in Parliament never occurred in Kerala. She has defamed the state and its people,” he demanded Sitharaman retract her statement.
CITU Thiruvananthapuram president and Welfare Board member R Ramu questioned Sitharaman’s understanding of labourers’ lives in her home state, Tamil Nadu.
Speaking to South First, he shared insights from a study conducted by CITU on labour conditions in neighboring states.
“To understand the plight of workers elsewhere, we visited Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. In the Thuckalay market of the Kanniyakumari district, we saw headload workers standing with their backs bent forward at a 30-degree angle in front of mills and godowns,” he said.
“When asked why, they told us, ‘If the owner is inside, we must stand like this—never straight, never with our heads up’,” Ramu claimed.
Describing their struggles, the CITU leader recalled speaking to a labourer about wages.
“For loading a quintal, he earned a mere 1.21 paise, while in Kerala, the same work fetched ₹14. When asked why they didn’t demand higher wages, one worker, with tears in his eyes, said, ‘If I ask for more, I won’t be allowed to work in the market anymore. They will throw me out,’” he quoted the Tamil Nadu worker.
“In a nation that proudly celebrates Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, workers are still treated like slaves. Perhaps Nirmala Sitharaman does not know this, or perhaps she has chosen to ignore it,” Ramu remarked.
While her statement has clear political undertones, it is also seen as an oversimplified and offensive portrayal of Kerala’s labour struggles.
Many argued that Sitharaman may not fully grasp the deep-rooted history behind nokkukooli, a practice that evolved as a means for Kerala’s labourers to assert their rights in a system that long denied them job opportunities and fair wages.
Mini Mohan, a labour rights expert from Thiruvananthapuram, told South First that nokkukooli — a term that the media later coined — was introduced to ensure minimum wages for loading and unloading workers.
However, with increasing automation, many labourers lost their jobs, and the system failed to offer them alternative livelihoods.
During the 1980s and 1990s, nokkukooli became a strong practice aimed at securing work opportunities for the labour force. A quasi-legal practice, nokkukooli later became synonymous with extortion.
Initially, nokkukooli was a structured system controlled by central and state trade unions, which assessed automation’s impact on labour loss, particularly in construction sites and commercial sectors.
With the rise of the corporate sector, automation replaced manual labour almost entirely, leaving unskilled workers with limited opportunities in areas like railway portering and head-loading.
The fundamental issue, Mohan argued, is not nokkukooli itself but the failure of the system to provide alternative employment for unskilled workers.
While laws were later implemented to curb the practice, the core question remains: What happens to millions of unskilled labourers in an era of AI and total automation?
Minister Sitharaman’s claim that nokkukooli destroyed industries in Kerala is misleading, Mohan further said.
Industries did not collapse due to this practice but because of the state’s failure to create new job opportunities. The larger issue is economic distribution and the utilisation of manpower in a capitalistic framework.
Labour laws in India weakened in the 1990s and 2000s, with a growing narrative against labour rights.
In the past two decades, no major labour movements have emerged, and trade unions have lost their influence. Labour protests are now often settled through political meetings rather than binding agreements.
Mohan emphasised the need for collective bargaining, ensuring 33% representation of trade unions in labour-related decisions and binding agreements with the government. Without such measures, the state bears no responsibility for enforcing promises.
As undocumented migrant labourers return to India, the challenge intensifies. The country still lacks a comprehensive industrial policy to accommodate this workforce.
While Kerala was the only state to formally address labour loss through the quasi-legal nokkukooli, its poor enforcement, political interference, and lack of regulation led to its eventual classification as illegal.
Despite its flaws, it has been argued that nokkukooli was a humanitarian effort to safeguard labourers’ livelihoods amidst rapid industrialisation, a model that, if effectively implemented, could have set a precedent for labour rights in India.
Although efforts to curb nokkukooli began with the 2002 Kerala Loading and Unloading Act, the practice persisted. Mounting criticism forced the Left government to formally ban it in 2018.
In a landmark judgment, Justice Devan Ramachandran of the Kerala High Court termed the practice of nokkukooli—where trade union workers demand wages without labour—extortion, declared it illegal.
The Kerala High Court’s 36-page verdict followed a petition by TK Sundaresan from Punalur, directing police and labour department officials to take strict action against such demands.
The court ordered police to treat complaints as extortion under IPC sections 383, 503, and 149, prioritising investigations and chargesheets. Victims can report cases via labour department helplines (155215, 1800 425 55214), ensuring intervention and refund of unlawful payments.
Balachandran C, the state president of BMS Headload Workers Union from Palakkad, told South First that “No headload workers in Kerala are now demanding nokkukooli, except a negligible one or two percent.”
“We strongly criticised even the chief minister when he generalised that labourers are still demanding nokkukooli,” he said.
Within BMS, only one such case has been reported, in Thiruvananthapuram. The District Labour Officer suspended the worker’s card, preventing him from continuing his job. Kerala has strict laws against nokkukooli, and any such demand arises from job insecurity.
The real solution lies in equipping workers with skills to operate in an automated environment.
Under the state government’s Labour Department, the Skill India Labour Academy (SILA) offers skill development training sessions for labourers. One batch of 50 workers has completed training, but a lack of government funding stalled the programme.
“When the BMS raised this issue, the government responded that while it would provide trainers, we have to procure the machinery,” Balachandran said.
He also clarified the recent nokkukooli controversy in Palakkad.
“Each headload workers’ union is assigned a specific area to work in. Outsourcing workers from outside these zones violates labour laws, as it denies local workers their jobs,” he explained.
“In Palakkad, an entrepreneur attempted to employ migrant labourers, prompting union intervention. However, the issue was misrepresented as a nokkukooli dispute. This pattern is common in many such cases,” Balachandran said.
”In Palakkad, both LuLu Mall and Reliance Hypermarket have fully cooperated with trade unions and offered us employment opportunities,” he added.
Aby Kunneparambil, AITUC’s headload workers’ secretary in Kottayam, told South First, “We oppose nokkukooli, but we firmly believe that labourers must be considered during automation transitions. Each labourer operates within a specific area, and when automation takes over, job losses must be addressed.”
Apart from humanitarian considerations, workers deserve compensation during periods of unemployment. Some corporate entities, such as LuLu, are considering local labourers.
“Recently, the LuLu Mall in Kottayam requested 50 headload workers, and we provided 25 from AITUC. This model of inclusion should be followed. Unfortunately, many state entrepreneurs replace local workers with migrants at lower wages, disregarding the native workforce,” Kunneparambil said.
Ramu told South First that “CITU is against nokkukooli, and currently, 21 CITU workers are in jail due to nokkukooli-related cases. The union does not support such practices.”
Mohan highlighted a crucial issue. “Defence personnel engaged in physically demanding work receive compulsory retirement benefits, pensions, and alternative job opportunities. However, civilian labourers, despite performing equally strenuous tasks, struggle with minimal facilities. There is no proper insurance plan for them, and welfare boards are not functioning effectively. ESI and PF benefits are often denied due to irregular contributions,” she added.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
