NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON ISSUES OF SALT PAN WORKERS IN INDIA

Background

Salt making activity has the history of more than 700 years in India. After independence this activity has shown significant growth with 9 fold increase in its annual production. Today, India constitutes 7% of world’s total salt production. In 2005-2006, country produced 18 million tones and ranked 3rd in the world.

Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu share major portion of the total salt production in India. While Gujarat produces both marine as well as inland salt, Rajasthan produces only inland salt and the rest two only have the marine one. The total workers engaged in salt making and allied activities are estimated to be more than Salt workers are largely un-organized.

Working conditions:

Salt workers work in extreme weather conditions. They are exposed to hot sun, high velocity wind and extreme cold conditions in areas like Little Rann of Kutch. The reflections from the heaps of salt affects the sight, where as saline water affects the skin and also increase blood pressure. Salt production areas are usually very far from that of the revenue village/settlements, there by creating severe issues in regards with basic facilities like water, electricity, road, health and education.

The most important issues, is of low return to the workers. The payments are mostly done on piece rate or daily basis. However the returns are very low compared to minimum wages of the state. In Gujarat, the condition is so worst that the workers are getting payment as low as Rs.30 per day. Salt pan workers do not have access to market or value addition, thus fall pray in the hands of brochures & traders.

Intervention of Government and Civil Society:

Central and state governments do have specific welfare schemes for the salt pan workers. In state like, Gujarat there is special committee called “Empowered committee” which looks after development of salt industry and welfare of workers. However, there is no separate policy or framework for operation. Thus many a times such measures seem to be adhoc.

Voluntary organizations do have played important role in awareness generation and capacity building of workers, and coordinating for effective implementation of the various schemes. In state like Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, government has recognized their role and included them in policy making committees.

Need for greater collaboration:Looking at the present industrial growth in coastal states, especially in soda ash chemical industries, the market for salt is going to increase. This will also increase the possibility that the issues related to working condition and violation of basic workers rights become more severe. Thus there is need to understand the challenges, build common understanding and advocate for uniform policy framework to regulate working conditions of salt pan workers.

Agariya Heet Rakshak Manch (A forum of organizations and individuals committed to work in issues of salt pan workers) has taken initiative in this context by proposing to organize a national consultation. AHRM is being actively working on 7 districts of Gujarat with support from CARE India, as part of SNEHAL programme. The event will be jointly supported by CARE, Mahatma Gandhi Labour Institute (MGLI), and Industries Commissionerate, GOG. The organizers of the consultation are Central Salt Commissioner’s Office, Industries Commissionerate, Tamil Nadu Salt Corporation Limited, Indian Salt Manufacturers Association, Pathey (Gujarat), along with AHRM, CARE India and MGLI.

The consultation will invite representatives of all important stakeholders like Industries department of all salt producing states, Representatives of cooperative societies, workers, unions, federations and small scale slat manufacturers along with voluntary groups and community organizations concern towards issues of salt workers.

We are sure that this initiative will find very good response from the state governments of various salt producing states as well as other stakeholders in the process and will result into a policy framework ensuring better working conditions of salt workers in India.

ORGANISERS:

· Central Salt Commissioner’s Office – GOI

· Industries Commissionerate – GOG

· CARE India (Gujarat)

· Agariya Heet Rakshak Manch (AHRM)

· Tamil Nadu Salt Corporation Ltd (TNSC)

· Indian Salt Manufacturers Associations (ISMA)

· Mahatma Gandhi Labour Institute (MGLI)

NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON SALT WORKERS IN INDIA

NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON SALT WORKERS aims bringing all important stakeholders on single platform with concern towards un-organized salt workers across the country. Salt making is a traditional activity and skills that were passed through generations. It is the activity giving livelihood to lakhs of families. Today, when Indian is ranking third in the world for salt, it is to be appreciated that various stakeholders share common concern towards issues of un-organized salt workers. The initiative depict commitment of the state and central government, corporate sector, as well voluntary sector for having collective efforts for having policy ensuring dignified life to salt worker in the country.
Consultation is jointly organized by Central Salt Commissioner’s Office (GOI), Industries Commissionerate (GOG), CARE India (Gujarat), Tamil Nadu Salt Corporation Ltd (TNSC), Indian Salt Manufacture’s Association (ISMA), Pathey, Agariya Heet Rakshak Manch (AHRM) and Mahatma Gandhi Labour Institute (MGLI)
The consultation will invite representatives of all important stakeholders like Industries, Labour and salt departments of all salt producing states, Representatives of cooperative societies, workers, unions, federations and small scale slat manufacturers along with voluntary groups and community organizations concern towards issues of salt workers from Gujarat, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa and Maharashtra.
We are sure that this initiative will find very good response from the state governments of various salt producing states as well as other stakeholders in the process and will result into a policy framework ensuring better working conditions of salt workers in India.

Yet to be Freed

Agariyas’ Lives and Struggle for Survival in the Little Rann of Kutch

- Charul Bharwada
- Vinay Mahajan

ABSTRACT

Every map of Gujarat has a dotted area labeled the Rann of Kutch – the Greater and the little. For those who have not seen the Rann, it is often an image of a desert - a landscape with sand and dunes. For those who have, it is a vast flat land with salt crust in the winters and summers and a big lake in the monsoon. Most people imagine it to be an area devoid of life and activity. But, the reality beyond these dotted lines has an interesting history and a complex present with many rulers, communities, animals and birds having diverse uses and strong relations with this landmass.
Agariyas, the traditional salt producers living on the edge of the Little Rann of Kutch is one such community having a unique livelihood relation with the Rann. Despite age old ingenious skills in making salt in the Rann and their significant contribution their lives remain socio-economically poor due to shrinking markets; perpetually exploited; ecologically threatened due to the proposed Wild Ass Sanctuary and administratively unattended and uncared. This paper is an exploration in agariyas’ livelihood system and their constant struggle for survival beyond the dotted lines of map.
The paper briefly describes history and ecology of the Little Rann of Kutch and diverse livelihoods practiced around it. It brings out through various historical documents how salt making in the Rann has been centuries old occupation. It further goes on to explore the economics of salt making from the Agariyas’ perspective and various threats faced by them.
(Charul Bharwada is an Architect and Planner from CEPT, Ahmedabad. Vinay Mahajan is an Agricultural Engineer and a management post graduate from IIM, Ahmedabad. After some years work in the corporate sector, they have been trying to study and understand the issues of natural resource dependent marginalised communities. They both are founders and principal researchers of SANDARBH Studies, Ahmedabad. through their small set up SANDARBH Studies. In order to share the findings of their studies with people, they also write and compose songs.)

Deliberation on working condition of salt workers

Express news service

Posted online: Sunday, April 06, 2008 at 0324 hrs IST

Ahmedabad

To discuss the working conditions of salt workers and to evolve ways to better their socio-economic status, a day-long national consultation will be organised at the Mahatma Gandhi Labour Institute on April 11.
The consultation will see salt workers, private corporations and government representatives from Gujarat, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa and Maharashtra taking part in the discussions.
Gujarat has more than 65,000 salt workers or agariya as they are called here. Close to 42,000 of them belong to the Little Rann of Kutch, an area of inland salt production, which also happens to be one of the most backward areas of the state.
The 5,400 sq km area has no electricity, no potable water supply, no schools and no police station.
According to Harinesh Pandya of the Agariya Heet Rakshhak Manch (AHRM), the plight of the agariyas of the Little Rann will be one of the major issues discussed at the forum. “This area bears the revenue survey no. 0. There has been no survey here and saltpan workers have nothing to prove their customary rights over the land. On the other hand, the government is granting licenses to private parties here,” said Pandya.
Other issues up for discussion would be the impact of corporate salt-farming on the traditional agariyas and finding ways to develop direct connection between the buyers and salt workers and eliminating middlemen.
The national consultation is being jointly organised by the Central Salt Commissioner’s Office, Industries Commissioner and CARE India (Gujarat), Tamil Nadu Salt Corporation Ltd, Indian Salt Manufacturer's Association (ISMA), Mahatma Gandhi Labour Institute (MGLI) and AHRM.

UNITED NATIONS TEAM FOR RECOVERY SUPPORT
PROJECT TO IMPROVE THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF SALT WORKERS IN TAMILNADU

Background

Salt workers are one of the most marginalized and vulnerable sections of the society in Tamil Nadu and other salt producing states of India. As per Central Salt Commissioner’s Office (CSO) supported BOBP-IGO (could you explain abbriviation?) study on India’s salt workers, there are about 150,000 salt workers and their families living for eight months in a year in a harsh environment without basic socio-economic amenities like drinking water, schools, hospitals and knowledge of their statutory rights. It is a labour intensive industry involving risks of blindness, blood pressure, skin lesions, knee injury, back pain and exhaustion, tuberculosis and chronic cough and epidemics such as malaria. Coupled with these issues is the fact that most of the workers are from the backward castes, unorganized, are paid low wages (on a no-work-no-pay basis), and suffer exploitation in the hands of intermediaries in the salt business, including money lenders.[1]

About 20 percent of the workers at the national level are seasonal migrants, which occurs at three levels; inter-village, inter-district and inter-state. Over 90 percent of migrants belong to the first two types where the workers migrate from neighboring districts of salt production zones to salt production centres during the season.

Under the British the growth of the salt sector was affected in India due to the heavy taxes imposed, forcing import of salt from Britain. The situation is markedly better now. India’s salt industry, with 17 million tones produced, is the third highest in the word. Tamil Nadu accounts for 14% of the above figure. The salt industry is governed by the Salt Cess Act of 1953, which is implemented through the Salt Commissioner’s Office, headquartered in Jaipur.
Impact on the Salt workers lives
The salt industry was hard hit by the 26 December 2004 Tsunami. The loss was mainly to the infrastructure, delay in production following intrusion of sea water in the condensors and reservoirs and loss of salt in stock.
In Vedaranyam, the salt production season is December to September. However up to April 2005 enough brine was not available. Due to tsunami waves, protective bunds, roads, bittern channels, brine pits were damaged extensively. The vedaranyam salt producers association has estimated loss of Rs. 25,000 per acre. Most of the workers remained unemployed after the tsunami damaged the saltpans. The SCO had sanctioned INR 57 lakhs for rehabilitation and planting mangrove trees along 500 metres area from the seashore.
The economic impact was in three forms:
1. Loss of prepared salt
2. Loans taken from moneylenders that remain outstanding
3. Sustaining oneself until the reclamation of brine pits is done and a new lot of produced salt is in place.
The Salt workers were one of most impacted communities after the tsunami though there was no extensive damage to life. Ever since then, there has been a need to run cross-sectoral programmes, habitat development and equity issues benefiting the salt workers.

National consultation

In pursuance of the above need the UNTRS organized a National level consultative meeting on 11th April, 2007, along with the Salt Commissioner’s office, at Jaipur. Participants and agencies represented at this consultation were the salt commissioner and his deputy, UNICEF, WFP, Industries department, UNDP, American India foundation, labour department, NGOS (Basix, Manthan). An overview of the needs of the salt workers, areas of priority and the schemes to be announced under the 11th Central Plan were discussed. The recommendations of the BOBP-IGO report on salt workers were also appreciated in this meeting:

- Create a data base on salt workers. Undertake a full census. Register all salt workers.
- Guarantee employment, fix minimum wages.
- Improve workplace amenities, such as access to potable drinking water, mobile clinics, protective gear, sanitation, rest sheds.
- Strengthen awareness on family planning. Recruit health workers from salt workers’ community.
- Set up a group insurance scheme. Improve and widen the credit access.
- Set up child crèches and schools. Mobilize NGOs for the same purpose.
- Modernize the industry without marginalizing small-scale salt units. Standardize production techniques. Improve power supply. Set up salt parks in select locations.
- Strengthen infrastructure for storage and transport of salt, jetties and efficient rail rakes.

It was also discussed in this meeting to start work in Tamil Nadu by forming an advisory group and initiating a baseline which could guide the intervention.

A state level stakeholders meeting was held in Chennai on 31st May, 2007, to analyze the key issues that need to be focused for intervention from the perspective of all participants which comprised representatives from salt workers, the Deputy Salt Commissioner, Tamil Nadu Salt Corporation, American India Foundation, Faces (NGO), Women’s Collective (NGO), Anasuya Foundation, Tata Chemicals, Orchid Pharma, and Hindustan Lever Limited. The meeting gave very useful insights on the salt workers issues, it mainly:

1. articulated the need and role of such an advisory group at the state level for the benefit of salt workers programmes,
2. key issues that need to be focused in Tamil Nadu
3. the terms of reference for a situation analysis was finalized

The situation analysis being conducted by the Vrutti - Livelihood Resource, Centre Catalyst Development Initiatives, has been initiated in September 2007 for a two month period, is expected to provide a clear design to implement a project to improve the socio-economic conditions of the salt workers. Clarity needs to emerge on the number of salt pan workers we are addressing, the specific issues in the tsunami and non tsunami context, and mainly a clear baseline to take this forward. This situation analysis will further result in designing a project design to improve the lives of salt workers.


Partnership strategy:

The project will be implemented in partnership with the Salt commissioner’s office (Government of India) and civil society organizations. Where required linkages will be established with Corporate Houses and other UN agencies to facilitate the implementation of the project.

[1] BOBP-IGO Condensed Report ‘Socio Economic Status of Workers in the Salt Industry’, 37, Bay of Bengal News March 2006

Scorching salt

RAVLEEN KAUR

The earth is cracked and the horizon bare. The deathly silence is broken by the occasional whirring of crude-oil pumps. Women, going about their daily life in bright mirror-work lehangas, add a dash of colour to an otherwise arid background. This tough terrain has dominated 50-year-old Shantabhai Maganbhai Bamania's life since he was 10.Shantabhai is an Agaria, a salt worker. The Rann of Kutch in Gujarat is his home to him and his family for eight months a year, from September to April. The remaining four months they spend in Kharagoda. Not just Shantabhai, the Rann of Kutch is home to more than 100,000 workers like him for eight months a year, who come from villages 30 to 40 kms away.Their livelihood has been under threat ever since the Little Rann of Kutch (the Rann is divided into the Little Rann and the Great Rann) was notified as a wildlife sanctuary in 1973 to protect the wild ass. In 2006, the salt workers were served eviction notices.The saltmaking Agarias do not understand why they are being asked to go, leaving behind an occupation they have been involved in for centuries. Where is the conflict, they ask. According to a Gujarat forest department sponsored study conducted by the Gujarat Ecological Education and Research Foundation (GEER), Ecological Study of the Wild Ass Sanctuary, the total area leased out for salt pans in 1995 was 13,357 ha, about three per cent of the sanctuary. The report notes that the area under salt production went up from 6,948 hectares (ha) in 1982-84 to 13,357 ha in 1995. At the same time, the wild ass population also went up from 720 in a 1976 census to 3863 in 2004. The report says "a minimum population of about 2,500 wild asses in the area would be a safe level to achieve the objective of conservation." "So where then is the conflict?" asks Harinesh Pandya, secretary of Agaria Heetrakshak Manch (AHRM), a forum that fights for the rights of Agarias. "The animals can often be found drinking water from the Agaria tanks. Never has a salt worker harmed a wild ass," says he. The forest department agrees there has been a healthy increase in the wild ass population of the area. It ascribes the rise in the number of wild asses to good rainfall in the past six years. "Wild ass mating gets disturbed by movement of salt trucks," says M A Chawda, Divisional Forest Officer of Dhrangadra. This is a classic case of speaking through the hat. Mating and breeding of wild asses begin in April and extends up to October. Trucks move into the area only in March and April when the salt harvest is ready. "The GEER report also suggests that there is no threat to wildlife from salt making. It only recommends the administration designate paths for trucks. It is a management problem, not an ecological one. Why punish Agarias if the government has not acted on this recommendation?" asks Vinay Mahajan of the Ahmedabad-based independent research institute, Sandarbh Development Studies. The government clearly follows a dual policy: act tough with the poor and be soft towards the powerful. It wants the Agarias to vacate the three per cent sanctuary area used for salt production. On the other hand, proposals for an oil and gas pipeline, from Oil and Natural Gas Commission and Cairn Energy, are now with the government for consideration. This pipeline, if approved, will pass through the Little Rann. The Narmada canal, which too will pass through the sanctuary, has already been given the go-ahead. The Agarias' vulnerability stems from the fact that they have no land deeds. No survey has ever taken place in the Little Rann of Kutch since independence; it does not figure in government revenue records. Revenue department records in fact refer to the area as Survey Number Zero.The forest department often asserts that Agarias have no document to prove their claim over the Rann. But Pandya contends, "There is mention in documents of the colonial state of salt extraction in the Rann of Kutch." His organisation has recently ferreted evidence from Mughal times that shows that salt-making in the Rann dates back to more than five centuries. The government started making some moves to settle Agarias' land claims in 1997. Surendranagar's district collector issued a notice to Agarias to claim their entitlements in the sanctuary within two months. But the notice was sent in September when Agarias had left for the Rann, so they could not file claims. "The additional collector's office told us that it has received only 1,776 claims so far. But according to the Gujarat industries department report of 2006, more than 45,000 families are engaged in salt making in the sanctuary. How come only 1,776 claims were filed?" asks Pandya. In December 2006, AHRM organised a meeting following which 4,800 Agarias filed their claims till June 2007. During monsoon, water from the Arabian Sea floods the Rann converting it into a lake. In September, when the waters recede, it's time for Agarias from the 107 villages around the Little Rann to move in. Mud huts come up in Survey Number Zero, where Agarias stay till spring, making the Vadagara variety of salt - it has big crystals and is considered inferior to the powdered marine salt sold in most of urban India. Vadagara is made from sub-soil brine. Agarias dig a six to nine metre-deep well from where the brine is pumped out. This is then taken through channels to large flat pans. Getting these pans ready to receive the brine is tough work. Agarias stamp hard and level the earth with their bare feet. The pressure tightly packs the loose soil and ensures the brine does not seep back. "The initial layer of salt that is formed, once the brine evaporates, is scraped with heavy wooden rakes, locally known as gantaras. Some dry branches are thrown in, around which salt crystals form," says Shantabhai. Once the salt has been harvested it is sent to collection points.Here traders take over. These collection points are by the nearest railway station; in Shantabhai's case the salt harvest is despatched to Kharagoda railway station. "The trader usually gives us a monthly advance of Rs 12,000 to Rs 14,000. This includes expenses for crude oil and spare parts, which go up to Rs 12,000. The rest of the money goes in buying food," says Mahesh Godhabhai Gohil, an Agaria. "We come to the Rann with an advance and leave the place in debt," says he. Not just debts, Agarias also leave with scars and blisters on their hands. Uninterrupted exposure to the sun causes eye and skin problems. Stamping hard on the salt pans with bare feet leaves Agarias with blisters - it is only recently that some NGOs have started providing them with gumboots. Wounds take a long time to heal because they are constantly rubbed with salt. About 1 million tonnes of salt is produced in a year in the region. It is sent to UP, MP, Chhattisgarh and Nepal. For every 100 kg of salt, the trader gives Rs 15 to the Agaria - seven paise per kg. Traders sell the salt at Rs 45 to Rs 60 per 100 kg - they spend about Rs 35 on cartage and iodination. Not just poor payment, declining groundwater has become a problem for the Agarias as well. "Salt pans were active upped April 2007. But this year, they had to be wound up in March because of very little groundwater. The average production from each pan was 1,000 tonnes about 10 year's back. It is no more than 700 to 800 tonnes now," says Devibhai Dhamecha, naturalist and photographer, who also runs a tourist resort near the Little Rann. Despite a hard life, Agarias do not want to give up salt making. "Here we have our freedom. There is no crime and not many wordly troubles. We are on our own unlike a construction labourer and at the end of a hot day, we at least get our meals. When there will be no more brine we will have no option but move out. But why should we leave right now?" asks Mangabhai.
(More to follow)[CSE/Down To Earth Features]

JAAGO GUJARAT

No more Satyagraha:
Salt makers use RTI to save livelihood
RAHUL MANGAONKAR

When Mahatma Gandhi broke the salt law at Dandi in 1930, it was a momentous chapter in India’s freedom movement. In the 60th year of Independence though, the original salt makers of Gujarat have been given marching orders. These inhabitants of ‘Survey Number Zero’ now face eviction, with the forest department serving notices to them.

The Agariyas, who are the traditional salt makers, are nobody’s people. How else can one explain their absence from the survey carried out by the revenue department of the Gujarat government, years ago? Ironically, the area inhabited by these people was numbered not for its human inhabitants, but due to the wildlife there.
The Agariyas as a community have been traditionally making salt in pockets of the 5,000 sq km spread of Little Rann of Kutch, for centuries. Little Rann is also home to the wild ass. For years, both man and animal have peacefully co-existed in this area, with hardly any conflict.

Only when foresters wanted to declare the area as a wild ass sanctuary that it dawned upon babus that this area had never been accounted for. For all these years, nobody cared for the condition of people living here. It required the presence of wild asses to draw attention to the Agariyas. When the need to name this stretch arose, so as to notify it as a sanctuary, the powers-that-be declared the area as ‘Survey Number Zero’!
The Agariya Heet Rakshak Manch (AHRM) has been championing the cause of the community by making them aware about their fundamental rights. AHRM has been relentlessly lobbying with the government at various levels. AHRM, supported by Janpath, also created awareness amongst Agariyas about their Right to Information (RTI).

Several members of the community have now used the RTI Act to ensure effective deployment of mobile health vans and setting up schools for the community’s benefit.
Now faced with eviction notices, residents of Survey Number Zero are using the RTI Act to demand accountability on the question of their very existence and basic fundamental right to pursue their livelihood, employment and sustenance.

Additional collector, settlement, appointed to rehabilitate those who stand to be displaced, was supposed to give an opportunity to the affected people to argue why they shouldn’t be displaced. In this case, the Agariyas had to prove that traditionally, they have been dependent upon the Little Rann of Kutch for making salt, which was their sustenance. They would not be able to sustain themselves anywhere else, bereft of their salt pans.

How many Agariyas make salt on Survey Number Zero? Responding to a RTI query, the salt department stated that approximately 15,000 Agariyas depend on their traditional occupation of salt making. Whereas another RTI query revealed that 1,776 applications were received for verification of rights. Moreover, the Agariyas had no idea for long that they had been served eviction notices.

Now they have filed RTI applications demanding to know how and when eviction notices were sent and how awareness, if at all, was created about the verification of rights process.

jaago.gujarat@indiatimes.com

Why kids won’t follow parents into salt pans

Pratibha Misra; Ahmedabad, October 18: The Indian Express

State Govt, NGO initiative to focus on providing basic education and vocational training

When salt workers of Kharaghoda in the Little Rann of Kutch wanted to apply for government identity cards, it was their children who read out the registration while they simply gave thumb imprints.
Mahesh Singhal, son of a salt-pan worker, trained as a health worker at the Karamsad Medical college and now works at Adesan village in the Little Rann of Kutch. Singhal has taken steps against malaria and other diseases, the bane of salt-pan workers.
It’s perhaps a sign that times may be changing for children of salt-pan workers in the State. Saddled with a hazardous life, these children faced a bleak future. But now the State Government has taken the initiative of providing these children basic education along with NGOs working for the workers.
In a State which produces 70 per cent of the country’s salt, the salt-pan workers weren’t given their due share. With a lack of basic education and an alternative livelihood scheme, children of these salt-pan workers most often follow the salt-laden path of their parents.
But efforts by NGOs like Ganatar, a core member of Agariya Heet Rakshak Manch (AHRM) working for the upliftment of salt-pan workers, may bring a whiff of change with State Government planning to adopt the education model provided by Ganatar as a supplementary model for salt-pan workers’ children.
The State Government has also allocated Rs 4.7 crore from the central educational budget for providing better educational facilities like schools and hostels for children of salt workers.
Ganatar, working at providing basic primary education to the children of salt-pan workers for a decade now, has sucessfully come up with two models of basic education. The two models — schools at workplace for children studing till Std IV and seasonal hostels for children studying in Std V-VII — help check the rising illiteracy rate among salt-pan workers.
The children of the workers, who migrate to the salt pans across the State every year around October, leave school midway to accompany their parents. This leads to them dropping out of school and having to enroll in the same class once they return home after the salt pans close for the season.
Says Sukhdev Patel of Ganatar, “Over time, this leads to the children losing interest in studies and giving it up altogether. With no other source of earning, they also turn to the one livelihood source they are aware of — the salt-pans.”
He futhers adds, “We have come up with two models of providing these children with basic education upto Std VII. The State Government’s budget of of Rs 4.7 crore is for this scheme.”
“It has been decided that 50 seasonal hostels for children who should stay at their native villages even when their parents migrate will be made and 50 schools at workplaces for children who migrate to the salt-pans will be constructed out of the grant,” he adds.
In another effort to provide definite skills and vocational training to these kids, Ganatar has come up with a programme under which children who have completed their Std VII are put up at the Gijubhai Bal Academy till they complete SSC free of cost. At present around 80 students are undergoing the programme in which for the first two years, the children are taught vocational skills like carpentary, weaving, automobile repairing, fabrication, making baked food items.
Says Ghanshyam Jhula, a member of AHRM, “Schooling and education help bring about a change in the attitude of these children. They become more aware of various facilities available for them.”
The efforts by the various organisations and Government have borne fruit with Keshubhai Surani, a disabled salt-pan worker, getting admission into the U N Mehta College of Morbi, with help from the industries department. Keshubhai, whose parents work at a salt-pan in the Little Rann of Kutch, wants to study further.