KOZHIKODE: Women headload workers, a labour force in the unorganised sector, are set to become extinct in Vadakara as less number of women are showing interest to take up this tedious occupation. “We are short of women workers as the younger generation is not interested in the job. We are not getting enough people to be replaced for the retired workers,” said 59-year-old V V Radha, who has been working in Vadakara market for the past 40 years.Radha is going to retire next year from the job. Similarly, in the recent past eight other women headload workers have retired. However, the replacements for the retired workers have not been found so far. “Young people are more interested in working in self-help groups than coming here to take load,” she pointed out. “Two new women workers left the job after coming for four days. They said the job was tiresome for them. We need at least eight replacements for the retirees,” she said. There are 25 headload workers and most of them are aged between 30 and 60 years with 20 to 30 years of experience of working as a headload worker at the market. “One of the major reasons for the new workers not coming to the job is low wage compared to other works. A woman headload worker gets about Rs 250 per day while a daily wage labourer gets about Rs 400,” said P Lathika, junior superintendent of Vadakara unit Kerala Headload Workers Welfare Board. Though both men and women head load workers do the same job, men are paid more than the women. Moreover, the job is very tiresome, she explained. However, the women headload workers are not content with the job. “This is the first job I took up and I do not want to leave it. We will be getting pension and other benefits. Daily wage workers will not get such benefits,” said P K Janaky, a 50-year-old headload worker. Janaky’s mother was also a woman headload worker here.
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