Head held high inspite the heavy baggage, a railway licensed luggage porter known as the ‘coolie’ helps a family transport belongings at the New Delhi railway station for a fee agreed upon after a quick round of ‘on the spot’ bargaining – which may or may not have been the originally quoted price, to begin with.
A recurring sight across railway platforms and interstate bus terminals, members of this unskilled workforce largely hail from impoverished backgrounds, sleep on platforms and shelters within stations, or badly made rooms available at the lowest rent – to send a large chunk of their earnings back home to families.
A few boasts of a year or two of elementary education procured from Government schools, but practically none ever make it to authoritative positions.
Though ‘coolie’ was once used to describe workers, send overseas to work on large plantations for low wages, after slavery was abolished in the British Empire, sometime between the 1820s and 30s – but a system, that quite unfortunately, quickly developed into human trafficking and flourished well into the 19th century before being ended by the British again.
The present generation that bears the name, on the contrary, are free men with voter rights, and who belong to labour unions that demand regular hikes in rates and better facilities. Furthermore, they also enjoy benefits such as medical coverage, low fare railway passage, and even have their own special commemoration day known as the Cooli Diwas, held each year on the 21st of February.
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In fact, the Indian Railways sees the heavy lifting as a full-fledged professional job and periodically recruits the manpower. The ones who make it through the enrollment process, get to work the platforms with golden badges tied over the arm as a visible sign of their license.
I F I This is an Independent Story on Coolies. It has been created from literary sources. Farbound.Net stories are update as newer information becomes available to present the complete picture. I
