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M.R. Subramani

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Chennai, June 1 While the rubber trade has been complaining of lack of stocks, one reason could be because the central Travancore region comprising Idukki, Kottayam and Pathanamthitta now has new recruits for tapping. The recruits are from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal.

“No Keralite is coming forward to tap rubber these days. Workers from Tamil Nadu are getting jobs in infrastructure projects. Therefore, planters have now turned to getting workers from the North,” says Mr N. Radhakrishnan, President of the Cochin Rubber Merchants Association.

Though getting workers from the North seems to have been solution, the planters are facing problems.

“First, they don’t know tapping, we have to train them,” says Mr Radhakrishnan. Then there is the problem of language and food.

“The problem of getting people is acute only in the Central Travancore area. In the Malabar region, we are still able to get labour from Tamil Nadu, especially from Coimbatore,” he says.

During the last few years, rubber growers not only in India but also in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, the top three global producers of natural rubber, have been facing labour shortage. Kerala accounts for 92.1 per cent of the country’s over 8.5 lakh tonnes rubber production.

These north Indian labourers are paid Rs 175-200 a day, and the work is between 3 a.m. and 9 a.m. “After that, they can do any work to supplement their income,” says a planter.

On the other hand, tappers from Tamil Nadu are paid Rs 200 to Rs 250 day.

The workers, however, are not provided accommodation or other facilities.

Actually, a tapper begins to work at 4 a.m., by cutting a wound in the tree. Then, he has to collect latex collected the previous day and put them in aluminium trays.

One reason Keralites not wanting to become tappers is due to a social stigma attached to it and them not able to get brides!

More Stories on : Rubber | Human Resources | Kerala

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