Surviving cart pullers In city market

A LOADED LIFE: A cart puller at work at Ariyangady yesterday. By Faris Arakkal ARIYANGADI, Chanthangadi and Nayarangadi are the crowded commercial hubs of the city, which have undergone changes over the years. Even after technology replaced men with machines, a group of men are still toiling in the market, pulling carts. Ferrying goods in the market in a cart is a hard job, but they are often paid less. Kerala Head Load Workers Welfare Board under the state government came into existence in 1984 to ensure the uniformity of labour and wages. Thus, the erstwhile cart pullers' 'first come, first earn' policy ended. Each pool has cart pullers in the market. There are more than 24 pools near the Jai Hind market. Pool number 7 has now 45 members, including cart pullers. Goods from various places like Surat, Delhi, Gujarat, Howrah and Erode are brought to the city daily and cart pullers are the main means for shipping out these goods to the nearby whole sale shops in the market. A day of a cart puller starts at 9.30am and ends at 6 pm. Each pool has a leader to check the attendance of their members. Each member will be assigned to work with a shop for the day and the shopkeeper will send the voucher to the welfare board. At the end of the month, the board will calculate each member's salary on the basis of their daily earning, but that will never go beyond Rs 3,500. Cart pullers are normally aged between 24 and 60 and most of them inherit the job from their fathers. "Unloading goods into shops on the second floor needs more strength," says Saijo, a young cart puller at Ariyangadi. He has been a cart puller here for 17 years. He is happy and content as he believes in the policy of 'earn while you burn'. KJ Devassy, who has been pulling carts from the age of 18, still remembers his experience of falling unconscious when he took a 100-kg rice sack on his back. But now at 60, he is upset, thinking about his future as he is going to get a pension of just Rs 350 a month from the board. "We have to spend Rs 12,000 for a cart and the spare parts are now not available in the market," says Baby Paul, who is also a cart puller. Now, carts are available on rent from Anjuvilakku. Whatever the facilities in the market for loading and unloading goods, a large section still opts for carts for ferrying goods because it is cheaper and faster in the snarling traffic.