india is one of the world's largest
producers of salt
and a third of it comes from deep in
this desert
the dry cracked land of little ron of
kutch was once a seabed
today over six thousand families live in
this desert farming salt by hand
they're known as the agarias and they've
been salt producers in this harsh
environment for generations
the air can reach up to 118 degrees
fahrenheit
and the land they work on is so salty
all to earn just four dollars a ton
that same salt will sell for 260 dollars
a ton is table salt soap or detergent
have faced a long history of
mistreatment but that stigma continues
and this is why you know the salt
farmers still continue
uh to do this job
there have been government efforts to
change things in recent years
but many still live in poverty
we went to india to learn how the
agarias became trapped in the big
business of salt
thousands of years ago this area was
part of the arabian sea
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or the island
it was still waterlogged though as part
of the indus river delta but an
earthquake in 1819 changed the direction
of the river
and therefore this entire area got dried
up but the water that still sits
underneath the mud is 10 times more
saline than seawater making it a perfect
place to farm salt
it was considered as a commodity which
is equivalent to
gold and the agarias have been working
here ever since
monsoons fill this area with water
starting in june it can take another
four months for the waters to recede
that is when the salt farmers
come into the picture
bhavna har chandani is a research
scholar who lived with the salt farmers
for seven months the agarias arrive
every year in october
and his wife carry everything they'll
need to live in the desert for the next
six months
including supplies to make their huts
clothes farming tools and all their food
and water
first they have to find the key to this
whole operation salty brine water
underground
they dig 30 feet into the mud to get to
it
digging wells can take up to a week
the families then set up these
government subsidized solar panels
they'll power the pumps that bring brine
water to the surface
then the agarias build the salt pans
these expansive salt flats
they'll make 10 to 20 pans all by hand
it's back breaking work
now working in the desert is not a joke
everyone in the family pitches in to
help
then the farmers will release the salty
brine water from the wells it flows
between the pans by the last pan the
water reaches the 24 salinity needed to
form big salt crystals
the farmers are so skilled that they
know it's the perfect salinity simply by
tasting the water
square hair minimum
a 300
hundred talk salt nick
over the next few months as the water
evaporates salt crystals form
this rake costs 22 dollars too expensive
for many of the farmers
they have to rake the salt crystals
every day for the first three months
to avoid the hottest part of the day
but working here can be really dangerous
the life expectancy of a farmer is about
60 years because not only do they face
extreme temperatures
they are dealing with subsoil groin
which is highly acidic and you also an
exposure to that subsoil brain also
comes with a lot of
problems in in skin
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become blind from years of the bright
sun reflecting off the white landscape
and because they're so far from the
nearest village accessing medical care
is often too expensive
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despite these conditions
live and work out here until spring when
the salt is finally ready they harvest
three times the first produces the best
quality salt
they leave in april
usually with over a thousand tons of
salt and they'll sell it to a trader
like rafiq rahimbai
his team picks up the harvest with
trucks
once it arrives from iran
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200 workers at his factory in tikar
processing and packaging salt he says he
loses about 20 percent of the salt
during the washing and draining process
it gets packaged and sold as edible
powder salt and as crystal salt to be
made into soap detergent and baking soda
this whole process refines the salt and
makes it more valuable so rafiq can sell
his product for upwards of 60 times what
the farmers make bhavna says in the time
she lived there she saw salt traders
working together to pay as little as
possible if i'm a farmer if i go and
argue that this price is too low
i need more he will say okay don't give
me your produce go to someone else
and then
that man the trader will go and tell the
other trader if this man comes to you
don't take his produce
rafiq denied taking part in such
practices and says farmers can negotiate
their prices
says he pays the farmers above average
between five and eight dollars a ton but
insider could not confirm that and most
farmers we spoke to said that this
season's market price for salt is
between two and four dollars per ton
that means in a good year a family will
earn just over four thousand dollars for
six months of grueling work but this
doesn't pay for all the expenses they
have as they prepare for the next
harvest so at the start of each season
many agarias have to come back to
traders like rafiq and ask for a loan to
help them get through it
however that taking advance has now
made them fall into the vicious trap of
loans and deaths this is the reason why
they are unable to come out
that means in a good year a family will
earn about two thousand dollars for
months of grueling work
that's well below the poverty line
the agarias have never really had
control over the salt they farm
the british classified the group under
the criminal tribes act of 1871
basically branding all members as
criminals from birth
but many historians say it was really a
way to control tribes that were poor
low-caste or didn't support colonial
rule
the law gave police the power to monitor
the agaria's movements and arrest them
with little cause
the british also owned this land so even
though the farmers were still allowed to
work here the british would take the
salt to england process it and sell it
back to indians with a heavy tax the
salt farmers they were not supposed to
take their salt out from the region so
what the women used to do they used to
hide the salt crystals in their in their
petticoat and then they would take it
out because salt was expensive
many indians couldn't afford the taxed
salt even though it was a staple in
their diet if you cut off the salt
supply it's like you know you are raging
a war it got so bad that in 1930 mahatma
gandhi organized one of his most
successful acts of civil disobedience a
240-mile salt march as he moved from
town to town it seemed that all of india
was behind
sixty thousand protesters were jailed
including gandhi himself
salt would be contested until india's
independence in 1947.
after british rule the agarias were
denotified meaning they were no longer
classified as a criminal tribe but that
stigma continues
with few other options they were trapped
producing salt this is why you know the
salt farmers still continue
uh to do this job
and they're still working on land they
don't own
after the british left the little ron of
kutch was taken over by the government
which leased it to the agarias
however
the government has stopped renewing
their leaves
and in 1972 most of the area became a
protected wildlife sanctuary therefore
they are illegally producing salt they
are considered as illegal
but the government has an unspoken
agreement with the community allowing
them to keep farming around the
protected areas
the government even provides equipment
like the subsidized solar panels and
boots to help protect against foot
infections
in the long term the salt farmers and
their advocates hope for more government
involvement starting with setting a
minimum
as their own farming depletes the brine
the agarias are moving deeper into the
desert further away from established
towns and villages probably we can at
least provide them with minimum water
facility so that you know at least they
have some amenities but until help
arrives these people will be back next
season
you