“Your Majesty, please give me a sarkari job, any job,” the shrewd young man pleaded with the king. “I will work without pay. I only need a job title and a flag.”
The kind king gave him the title Thira Nokki , or “Watcher of the Waves”, and an impressive red flag with the king’s insignia stitched on it. “Go to the seafront at sunrise every day and just look at the waves until sundown,” the king commanded.
With the king’s flag in hand and a threatening look in his eyes, the young man waved down every boat that passed by. Unnerved by the flag, every boatman paid him a bribe. The bribe later came to be called Nokku Kooli , or wages for looking.
It was perhaps from this folk tale about power dynamics and corruption that the modern Malayalam term Nokku Kooli emerged. It signifies the obnoxious practice in Kerala of extorting money from hapless employers, shopkeepers or households by loading-and-unloading workers. Though abhorred by every citizen, it has survived for decades with the support of the political class.
According to one definition, ‘ Nokku Kooli is a euphemism for extortion by organised labour unions whereby wages are paid to trade union activists to allow common householders, investors, or builders to unload belongings or materials using machines or their own labour. This happens with the tacit support of political parties including those in government’. A wag put it this way: “Three things are certain about life in Kerala — death, the hartal and the Nokku Kooli .”
In Kerala, home to 33 million rights-conscious people, it is important to understand that Nokku Kooli is a key source of income for low-rung union bosses. It knows no barriers of power, influence, name, fame or station.
A month ago, an actor had to cough up ₹25,000 to head-load workers belonging to various trade unions. This was for just looking on while a group of workers employed by the actor’s building contractor unloaded granite slabs. The unions had initially demanded ₹1 lakh. Tenants in Kerala, scared of Nokku Kooli thugs, usually move house past midnight, in phases. Nokku Kooki is often blamed for the industrial backwardness of Kerala.
Now, the CPI (M)-led Pinarayi Vijayan government has banned the practice, beginning May 1. No legal framework has been put in place, although the government is considering making Nokku Kooli a non-bailable offence.
Members of the CITU, the trade union wing of Mr. Vijayan’s party, are widely considered to be the most aggressive practitioners of Nokku Kooli , despite public disapproval by the union and the party.
The people of Kerala have taken the ban with a bucket of salt. Last year, despite a ban on bandhs, bandhs were renamed hartals; Kerala had the largest number of hartals in the country. Most people believe the ban on Nokku Kooli will go the way of the ban on the bandh.
The writer is a Deputy Editor and Chief of Bureau with The Hindu in Kozhikode
