Abstract: The coir industry in Kerala has changed its nature and structure of work after 1990's when the industry enhanced efficiency through modernization. In the traditional mode of production, the worker himself was engaged in each aspect of coir production; from coir fiber extraction to the manufacturing of varied value added products using coir yarn. But modernization brings division of labour (Capitalist Mode of Production) in its fullest extent and specialization alienated the worker from the labour. Because of modernization and resultant changes, the workers lost ‘the ability to determine life and destiny when deprived of the right to think (conceive) of themselves as the director of their own actions; to define relationships with other people and to own those items of value from goods and services, produced by their own labour’. Here, the workers are alienated from their labour. Mechanization and modern division of labour totally reduced the role of coir worker to a mere facilitator for machines.

Keywords: Coir Worker, Modernization, Mechanization, Mechanical Solidarity, Organic Solidarity, Division of Labour

| DOI: 10.17148/IARJSET.2021.8905