Kerala began 2019 on an unusual note. The new year started off with the Women's Wall, and a hartal followed the very next day. It's not even a week into 2019 and already a hartal! Malayalees would be facing more general strikes even though campaigns like 'No Hartal' is gaining popularity.

Frequent disruptions have grave consequences on Kerala's economy, once a flourishing one. The festering Sabarimala issue and the increasing menace of hartals, and the setback caused by the floods last year all put a strain on the state economy.

Last year, the state witnessed over 100 hartals. Kerala's industry and business are affected tremendously due to the frequent shutdowns called by various outfits. Moreover, the rehabilitation of the flood-affected victims are derailed due to lack of funds, as the government is occupied with the issues of Sabarimala and the damages done by antisocial elements during a hartal.

The first hartal of 2019 was on January 3. It was called by the Sabarimala Karma Samiti an outfit backed by RSS and with the support of BJP over the entry of two women below the age of 50 at the Sabarimala shrine. The women duo, Kanakadurga and Bindu, stated that the visit to the Sabarimala was not part of an agenda and was purely based on their will. "We climbed the hill along with other devotees and was accompanied by cops," they told Manorama News in an exclusive interview.

On Thursday, 745 people have been arrested in the state and 628 have been taken into preventive custody, according to the police. Around 559 cases of violence have been reported on the hartal day. Kerala Governor P. Sathasivam has sought a law and order report about the violence and destruction of private and public property.

Ironically, it is the Kerala High Court which banned bandh for the first time in the country in 1997 and declared them "illegal and unconstitutional." It was later upheld by the Supreme Court which ruled against any sort of hooliganism in the name of 'bandh' in 1998.

The Judiciary had said the "exercise of a Right of Protest should not infract the fundamental right of another citizen who is equally entitled to exercise his rights. Organisers of bandh are to compensate the Government, the public and private citizens for losses suffered due to the destruction during the bandh."

"A bandh call implied threat to life and property of a citizen," the judges had observed then.

But after the court refused to stay hartals in 2004, the political parties are enforcing bandhs in the name of hartals and the economy suffers even as the public is helpless.