Time and technologies have rendered the traditional trolley pullers redundant. However there are still a few of them using the old-world wooden trolleys for transport of grains and other goods from place to place in the centuries old Valiyangadi (Big Bazar) in the city here.
It was said that there were more than 1500 trolleys, mostly used for goods movement from railway station to the market and from wholesale traders to the retails shops in the city, once. “There are only less than 50 of them now in the city however,” says Jafar Sakeer, district secretary of the Sothanthra Thozhilali Union (STU) to the trolley section of which affiliated are more than 70 per cent of the trolley pullers in the city now.
The transition took place over a period of more than 50 years, say senior traders from the Valiyangadi. While some of the trolley pullers graduated to what is called the “Goods- Auto-rickshaw” others deserted the sector completely for different reasons. “I don’t see any new-generation youngsters coming to take up this job for various reasons,” says Mr. Sakeer, who believes that the tribe of trolley-pullers will end with the present generation.
The nature of trade and goods movement has changed and the character of the city is no more the same. Only a few like Premanathan P.K in his 50s, and a trolley-puller for the last 23 years, is sticking to the old job. Not because it is a low-paying work. Mr. Premanathan earns around Rs. 1000 to Rs. 1500 on most of the days. “However, it makes you twice older when a year passes,” he says referring to the toll it rakes on one’s physique. The eco-friendly and zero-fuel cart is on its way to the oblivion. Not all like Premanathan owns a trolley and handles it single-handedly. There are nearly 200 trolley-pullers in the city under different trade unions. However, the number of trolleys here are only one forth of it. Many like A.K Ali and Marakkar, who are in their late 60s still, do the job as a team-work. One of them owns it, but a team of not less than four duly share the work between them. “The owner will get his extra due,” says Mr. Ali, who is unable migrate to other sectors even when age is beginning to fail him.
Most of these trolleys are used to transport goods in the 1. km radius of the Valiyangadi in the city. However the immensely increased vehicle traffic, bad road conditions and a section of “cruel” police officers, who frequently charge them for “causing traffic obstruction” according to them make the life of the remaining trolley pullers tough.
