The Rann of Kutch is a salt marsh area of Gujarat, India. Far from being well-known around the world, most people in India are not even aware of its existence. There are no roads in the Rann. To travel, one has to make their way through its huge mudflats. This salt-bearing wilderness is also known as 'Survey Number Zero' because no land survey has been conducted here since the end of the British rule in India.
In the middle of the Rann, a small tribe of salt farmers named the Agariyas live. For eight months after the monsoon, the farmers live in the middle of the desert putting up with the harsh, cold winter and the scorching heat of the summer. The salt they produce is cultivated which is a painstaking and tiresome process as compared to the other salt-making techniques used around the world today. They continue with this technique because it's the only method they are aware of.
The Agariyas have been producing salt in this region for decades. When the water starts receding in, 35000 Agariya families begin their annual exodus from across the state to the Little Rann where they spend the next 8 months cultivating salt. When the rain arrives, nobody will be able to go to Rann. In the ninth month, the Agairyas will take their ration, water, oil, petrol etc. and move into the Rann.”
They build their houses with bamboo, sacs, rope and grass.
They have to buy bamboo, sacs and rope as well as spend on petrol for travel. On the way to Rann, they cut the grasses that grow by the ponds with their hands. They make the scaffold for the house with bamboo and put sacs on top of it and cover it with grass. The grass keeps the house cool and protects them from the heat and wind. They know that the grass can catch fire but there is no other option. They use grass as it is available for free. It takes around Rs. 5000-6000 for them to get all the materials for settling and constructing their huts in the Rann including transportation every year.
The Salt farmers started building their huts above the ground because they started receiving unseasonal rainfall even in the months of salt farming and water would get collected in the pits. Earlier, they used to build the house with mud and it took lesser building material like bamboo and sacs but now our belongings get destroyed in the rain. They face problems until the house is constructed as they have nowhere else to live. A certain type of fly breeds in stagnant water after the monsoon and sometimes they are even forced to return to the village because of them. If the Government provided them with proper housing and irrigation facilities, it would make their lives much easier.
The entire Agariya family after constructing their huts prepare the fields. Here lies the exploitation factor: the merchants realize their dependence on this profession, and heavily underpay them for months of manual labour in extreme climatic conditions. Barring certain patches, the soil in the Little Rann is saline, and the production of most other crops is nearly impossible. They harden the land and raise embankments with their bare hands and feet to create about a dozen or so evaporation pans. Simultaneously they dig a well that is about 80 feet deep to extract the saline groundwater into the first of the pans.
Often due to the groundwater in that particular part not being saline enough, the farmers have to dig more than one well. The process of producing salt takes about 8 months. The family is worried—the price of salt that season is a measly 20 paise per kilo as fixed by their salt trader. In the process of cultivating salt, their feet are perpetually exposed to the highly-saturated brine in the salt pans. A salt worker’s hands and feet stiffen and at times water oozes out of their legs. A story goes around in the Rann, that after an Agariya’s death, their stiffened legs are not able to burn in the funeral pyre and so they have to be buried separately. Most Agariyas suffer from malnutrition, as they subsist on millets and garlic pickle, which is their staple diet.
They receive 1,000 litres of water every 15 days. Nowadays, it is much easier for the farmers as the Gujarat government is distributing safety kits with caps, gumboots, hand gloves and dark glasses. The blistering blaze of the sun reflected by the salt pans causes early cataract and skin problems. The Agariya family have no way of predicting before they start farming salt whether they will make a profit or loss as the prices of diesel and petrol keep rising. There is also a popular saying in Gujarat, that goes: debt is what an Agariya never fails to bring back home.
The pump remains the main cause of the heavy debt incurred by the farmers. Even among the salt farmers there lies a hierarchy. The salt farmers whose salt pans are closer to their villages can come back home to their families after a hard day’s work. Their working conditions are severe but having the liberty to come back home to their families works in their favour. All the villages have easy access to the schools most Agariya children go to, where they receive education at least till the eighth standard. There is still scope for the Agariyas to have a better future as they are gradually climbing the ladders of literacy.
The farmers work around temperatures ranging from 45 degree Celsius to 55 degree celsius. They cannot even afford to get a cup of tea or put sugar in it. So they drink it with salt instead. They don’t have access to milk and so have to drink black tea. Happiness is subjective and its theory differs from person to person. The Agariyas don’t just deal with the situation they are in, but they make the most out of it. Living in a harsh, merciless land they not only survive for months but also learn to work with composure and dignity in extremely difficult conditions. The Agariyas are a symbol of human resilience and an intrinsic part of the Rann.
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