Indian Salt Workers

Script - 9 mins 24"

0.00

0 music.00

The Kutch desert - India’s second largest district. Savita Vadoliy wades through salt water for 8 hours a day, every day, 8 months a year, along with 30,000 other families. They are aware of the dangers.They can see how the salt is eating away at their feet, legs and hands and how their eyes are blinded by the glare. But they have no choice - this job is the only gruelling option available to them. Just like their parents and grandparents before them , they and their children mine salt for a handful of rupees a day.

fade music

0.46

I/V

Samrat Bhai, salt worker

I’ve been a salt worker ever since I was small. We lived too far away from the village for me to go to school. Now I realise how much the traders exploit and cheat me. All I can do is put my thumbprint on paper.

1.00

Savita’s son is just a month old and was born here - without a doctor or a midwife.The only medical help would have been 40 km away in the village. Just like the other children, his future is already mapped out for him - he will help his parents to mine the salt. Both of Savita’s sisters-in-law and their husbands live here - the house is also made of salt..

1.24

I/V

Savita Vadoliy

There is no work in the village.We have to make a living with salt here. I was afraid before my baby was born. But it’s our way of life - it was exactly the same for our parents.

1.37

Many of the salt workers borrow money from the traders. They need it to buy diesel to fuel the engines which irrigate the mines 24 hours a day. They have to search for water underground - but often their search is in vain.

1.57

Dharamsi Amarsi

Salt worker

This is the 14th hole I’ve drilled - and still there’s no water. The trader advanced me some money and that’s what I have to live on. There’s not much left over at the end.

2.09

There are two types of salt workers - those who rent their own land from the government and those who work directly for the traders. Both earn very little and are equally exploited. Diesel, food and even drinking water has to be delivered. There are no facilities here - nothing but unbearable heat. The water is so expensive that it can only be used as drinking water.

2.37

The women have organised themselves into a self help group, so at least they can buy basic foodstuffs without having to walk to distant villages every few weeks. Pooling their efforts save them all a lot of time and energy.

2.54

Beena Trivendi

Sewa - human rights organisation

We have looked closely at the workers’ situation. It is crucial that we do something for the children because otherwise they would fall into the drill holes and sit in the sun the whole day while their parents are working - the conditions are appalling. The government doesn’t want to renew their contracts. And the politicians won’t help the salt workers either.

3.15

The Sewa organisation takes care of children up to the age of 7 - after which the children are expected to help out in the mines. The teacher tries to teach them to read, write and count to give them more of a future. The salt workers live in the desert for 8 months of the year and return to the villages during the monsoon season. 40 families are members of the Sewa organisation. This gives them some say against the government and the traders. All of the salt workers are illiterate and dependent on others to help them. The parents pay a few pence a month to send their children to the day care centre - this is often their own food money - but at least the children get 3 meals a day.

4.08

Beena Trivendi

Sewa - human rights organisation

Families sign contracts with the traders which they don’t understand - and they usually draw the short straw. All of the profit goes to the traders. We are going to represent the workers against the government. If they can no longer rent the land, then they will lose everything.

4.24

The nurse from the organisation uses a mirror to signal her arrival. She comes twice a week and distributes medicine for the most common illnesses. Salt workers usually suffer from skin diseases - the water is so hot from April to July that it burns the skin. Then there is the Western wind which dries out their skin, and an unbalanced diet which leads to vitamin deficiency. The children in particular suffer from malnutrition.

4.56

I/V

Chanduba Gadwi

Nurse

People used to have to travel miles to the nearest village to get medical treatment - they usually ask for medication for skin diseases, eye problems and diarroeah due to the salty water. Their lives are really not very easy.

5.13

Everyone suffers from diarroeah, which can be a cause of death for children if they do not receive proper medical attention. Tuberculosis, malaria and dysentery are particularly common in the summer, and the workers are also prone to night blindness.

5.28

Music

For generations families have lived in the Kutch - many are nomadic tribes and untouchables, who have no caste. The desert is cut off from the mainland by the Great and Little Rann. If the government didn’t demand concessions for traders and miners, there would be a lot of unemployment.

But this could happen soon - due to pressure from environmentalists. Almost 5000 square metres have been a protected area since 1973. The fuss is all about the Indian wild ass which only exists in these desert areas.

6.03

Environmentalists fear that deforestation is getting out of hand. The underground water is depleting because it is so heavily exploited for salt production. But the people are powerless. They mine around 500 tons of salt in 8 months and after paying off their debts, are left with around US$ 50.

6.24

Fade music

Devjibhai Dhamecha wants to see the area made into an international wildlife protection zone.

6.34

Devjibhai Dhamecha, environmentalist

It is the government’s responsibility to place the miners elsewhere and not in the protected area. The people have nothing - neither schooling nor medical care. Apart from that, all of the traders have connections with the politicians who fix the prices and get rich from the industry.

6.53

In the state of Gujarat over 4 million tons of salt are mined each year, which is around 70% of India’ s total consumption. The salt is not only used for people and animals, but for soap and washing powder too. Hundreds of thousands of families work in the salt industry, in mining, transportation and distribution. The advantage of desert salt is that it has more magnesium and calcium than sea salt, and unlike sea salt doesn’t temporarily evaporate from the ocean during India’s frequent cyclones.

7.29

I/V (in English - directly transcribed)

Ramesh Mankodi

General secretary of the Gujarat salt co-operative

It is not possible at all to exclude these private salt manufacturers from this activity, because if they were not there, then there’d no question of manufactuing salt at all . If the salt manufacturing activities discontinued, then it wouldn’t be possible to meet requirements for salt for human consumption as well as industrial requirements - in the whole country - there would be a huge deficit of salt.

8.01

Music in

The salt supply stretches underground from here to the border of Pakistan. In 1930 Mahatma Ghandi began his historic salt march from Ahmedabad to the Arabian sea. The handful of salt which he picked up on the shore was a symbolic breach of the British salt laws, demonstrating that salt could be obtained without paying heavy taxes. It was the first step in his campaign for civil disobedience.

8.28

I/V Kalu Bhai Nanja

Salt worker

The government is making wild asses a priority - what about people? - aren’t we more important? We work so hard, without any breaks, our skin is eroding away, and the salt water in our eyes is gradually blinding us. We would rather die - it is a horrble existence.

music in 08.52 - 09.08

Gandhi was successful in breaking up the British salt monopoly, and uniting the Indian independence movement with his simple act of defiance. But there no longer seems to be any hope of a Ghandi figure in the Kutch desert. The salt workers are subject to exploitation, and have little option but to accept their fate.

end insert up to 09.24

END

Report: Marion Mayer-Holdahl

Camera: Shailesh Seth

Edit: Ingrid Hölzl

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