Vedaranyam is a town in Tamil Nadu known for its salt
production since 1865. The Salt Satyagraha of 1930 held great significance for this area
and helped gaining independence. But today, in 2003, salt workers are impoverished,
underpaid and buried in debt.
WE WORK IN THE HOT SUN AND
STAND IN SALTY WATER FOR HOURS,
JUST FOR YOUR SALT.
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They work in the hot sun and stand in salty water for
hours, just for your salt. The salt you get in your homes comes from the combined sweat of
the Agariyas in Gujarat, Kahrvas in Maharashtra, contract workers in Tamil Nadu and
Kahrwals in Rajasthan. In India, the labour intensive solar evaporation process is the
main source of salt production and Gujarat contributes 70 per cent of the total salt
production in the country. There are more than 1 lakh workers engaged in the salt
industry. Most of them live and work under sub-human conditions, lacking basic amenities
like drinking water, shelter and education. They work without gumboots, sunglasses,
necessary tools and health care. They are also neglected by the govenment. When a cyclone
hit Gujarat coasts in 1998, neither the employers nor the state could arrive at actual
number of persons killed due absence of proper records of the salt workers! So much
for freedom through salt.
In
the fifties, scientific studies of goiter in the sub-Himalayan areas of India indicated
that it was due to lack of iodine. To combat this the intake of table salt fortified with
iodine was adopted in the region. In 1998, the central government banned the sale of
common salt altogether and made it compulsory for all groceries to stock only iodized
salt. But two years later, the ban was lifted after the argument that it should be left to
the consumers to decide the type of salt they wanted to buy: cheaper common salt produced
by the small scale industries or the branded and iodized table salt sold by big
manufacturers. The debate is still on. Some health experts are of the opinion that iodized
salt is necessary in everybody’s diet whereas some say only some regions of the
country need it. A complete ban on non-iodized salt would wipe out the livelihoods of many
of the small scale manufacturers throughout the country .