_d.png "Independence Day 2025")
When the matter was brought to the notice of their male employers, they were told to use tubes to relieve themselves
It's then that the 50-year-old floated an organisation called Penkoottu to take up issues faced by women workers in the unorganised sector. This also included the "right to sit" at the workplace for saleswomen. She recalls how her efforts would run into roadblocks due to the absence of a union. No union, meant no rights, which is when she decided to form the Asangaditha Meghala Thozhilali Union (AMTU), the first women trade union in Kerala in 2014. It took two years for them to get it registered. "The labour officers tried their best to not grant us the registration."
Nine years and countless strikes later, her demands have been heard. In July, the Kerala Cabinet cleared an amendment to the Kerala Shops and Establishments Act, 1960, to ensure a "secure environment" for working women. This meant that total working hours in a day could not exceed 10, and that women had the right to take breaks, and the right to sit, among others. "The problem was the deeply entrenched patriarchal mindset. They didn't even treat us like human beings, which is why we had to fight for something as basic as a urinal. They assumed that they were doing us a favour by allowing us to work in the first place," she says.
Today, Penkoottu is working relentlessly to get equal pay, stop mental harassment at work and enlighten workers about their own rights. "We have lakhs of workers, and our onus is now to keep them informed and aware. Thankfully, women are no longer keeping silent. They are talking back."
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