The Hindu Business Line : Salt-makers in Gujarat face eviction

The details
Nearly 43,000 salt-makers, spread over 107 villages around the Little Rann of Kutch, are engaged in salt-making activity in the salt pans.
While the State Forest Department has issued eviction notices to them, the State Government has also provided identity cards to nearly 41,000 of them, certifying them as traditional salt-makers.

Surendranagar (Gujarat) April 8 With anger simmering, it may turn out to be another Salt Satyagraha — this time Indian citizens protesting against an Indian law that prevents them from their traditional salt-making activity for the sake of protecting wildlife.

The Gujarat Chief Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, who addressed an "Agaria Kalyan Sammelan" (Conference for the Welfare of Salt-Makers) in village Patdi in this district, assured the salt-makers that he would fight with the Centre to protect their traditional rights for salt-making.

He regretted that the issue has cropped up at a time when the State Government was planning to develop the Navlakhi Port in Kutch near the Little Rann of Kutch with a special jetty dedicated for salt export so as to fetch the best prices for salt-makers' labour. This port aimed at cutting down transportation costs and give a boost to local economy, at a time when the Railways have failed to provide any concession in freight charges for salt. Also, the Government wanted to develop a Rann-based tourism plan, he added.

Facing displacement

These salt-makers had traditionally mastered the art of salt-making and produced 65,000 tonne of it last year from the 5,000 sq km area under the Little Rann of Kutch; now they face displacement to make way for a wild ass sanctuary in some 4,958 sq km area carved out of their domain of livelihood.

Predictably, they are up in arms and would launch agitation from May 1, the Foundation Day of Gujarat and International Labourers' Day, with a rally in Ahmedabad, said Mr Harinesh Pandya, who runs Janpath, an NGO for salt-pan workers and Mr Sukhdev Patel, who runs a school for their kids. They were still talking to the State Government in an attempt to end uncertainty, they added.

Nearly 43,000 salt-makers, spread over 107 villages around the Little Rann of Kutch, are engaged in salt-making activity in the salt pans. On their earnings depend the life of around 70,000 family members. Interestingly, while the State Forest Department has issued eviction notices to them, the State Government has also provided identity cards to nearly 41,000 of them, certifying them as traditional salt-makers. The salt makers earn Rs 80-90 per tonne of salt made in seasons each year when the Arabian Sea's marine water fills up the low-lying `salt farms' in the Rann due to tides and then the salt-makers work these fields to dry them up to collect salt. The middlemen make Rs 130-140 per tonne, while the companies make more money after value-addition.

The issues involving salt-makers seem more complicated than the West Bengal farmers who successfully agitated recently at Singur and Nandigram over the official attempts to acquire privately owned farmland for industrial and SEZ purposes. Most of the salt-makers do not own the land. The Government traditionally leased out arid and fallow land for `salt farming' to local individuals as well as some 20-odd companies. Until 1963-64, this renewable lease for a plot of five to ten acres was for 10 years and thereafter for five years.

But when the Centre decided to reserve the land for a sanctuary to protect wild ass in the Little Rann of Kutch in the 1970s, under the Wild Life Protection Act of 1972 and other laws, attempts were made by the State Forest Department, as the implementing agency to acquire land. While the companies' lease continued to be renewed as usual, the individuals' lease was not renewed from 1997 onwards. The salt-makers were finally issued eviction notices some three months ago.

Sensing popular protest locally in an Assembly election year, Mr Modi said the State Government would try to persuade the Centre to reconsider dislodging the salt-makers.

Special courses

The State Government wanted to use satellite communication and modern technology to make salt-making scientific. It would be introducing special courses in the ITIs for wards of salt-makers and promote prawn culture to create job opportunities. Enumerating the steps taken by the State Government over the years for the welfare of salt-makers, Mr Modi the benefits of the recently-announced Rs 11,000-crore scheme for the development of coastal areas and fisheries would also percolate to salt-makers.

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