India’s 1st Labour Movement museum soon in Alappuzha

KOCHI: The country’s first Labour Movement Museum, showcasing the history of world labour movement, would be launched in Kerala’s houseboat tourism hub, Alappuzha.

The museum will feature a huge repository of documents and exhibits that shaped the labour movements across the continents and impacted Alappuzha, the cradle of the labour movement in the country, in particular and Kerala in general, state Tourism department said on Sunday.

Located alongside the Port and Coir museums displaying the town’s rich maritime heritage, the Labour Movement Museum, the first such window in the country on the class struggle and spirited fight of workers, is part of a larger project that will also be of tourist appeal. The museum would be launched as part of LDF government’s second 100-day programme.

Packed with history predating the advent of the Western colonialism, Alappuzha had a virtual monopoly over the production and shipping of coir made of coconut husk, a product that had immense global demand.

“The Alappuzha Heritage Tourism project is conceived to bring this legacy before tourists, in which these museums are important components,” Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran said.

The Museums will open as soon as the restoration of heritage structures are complete. Kerala State Coir Corporation Ltd building will become the Museum of Coir History.

With an outlay of Rs 9.95 crores, 97 per cent of renovation works in this museum is complete.

The conservation of the old Port Office and the adjacent godowns is in progress. Nearly 90 per cent of works of Rs 4.63 crore Port Office refurbishment is complete.

Noted conservation architect Dr Benny Kuriakose is leading the restoration works.

The museum would be launched as part of the LDF government’s second 100-day programme