As Tamil Nadu faces its harshest summer time in years, many individuals need to the skies in hopes of discovering aid from afternoon showers. However within the Marakkanam salt pans, rain is among the final issues employees can hope for. Each time it rains, salt manufacturing is halted for a number of days, producing wages.
In order that they hope the warmth will final, whilst they endure hours underneath the relentless solar that displays off the white salt pans with blinding depth. It’s a merciless irony that the climate that leaves employees dizzy, dehydrated and exhausted can also be what sustains them.
This yr, temperatures exceeded 40 levels Celsius in some areas even into June, however the excessive humidity made it really feel even hotter. The state recorded the second highest common minimal temperature for June since 2015, in keeping with the Regional Meteorological Heart (RMC).
Nights remained almost 1 diploma Celsius hotter than regular, offering little consolation to employees after a protracted day of bodily labor. Lack of cool nights and extended warmth throughout the day uncovered many elements of Tamil Nadu to sustained warmth stress. Weak southwest monsoon situations delayed widespread rainfall even into mid-July, resulting in warmth wave-like situations in lots of elements of the state.
make a residing from salt
In Tamil Nadu, salt work normally takes place from January to August. Every day wages for girls vary from ₹400 to ₹500 and every day wages for males vary from ₹700 to ₹750. Employees sometimes begin work round 6 a.m., work by 10 a.m. or till the work is full, and return round 3 p.m. when extra salt has been harvested.
As soon as the salt is harvested, it’s piled up in piles and coated with tarpaulins till merchants come to purchase it. |Photograph credit score: Geetha Srimati
Salt manufacturing follows a timed course of relying on dry climate. Pour seawater into an evaporating dish and let it evaporate for a number of days till salt crystals type. The crystallized salt is then scraped into piles, left to dry additional, scraped into baskets and carried to bigger piles, and coated with tarpaulins till merchants come to purchase them. Each change within the climate is intently monitored, as even a short drizzle can damage a complete day’s harvest.
A girl works within the salt pans of Kalipalayam, Malakkanam on a cloudy day. As an alternative of relieving themselves underneath cloud cowl, employees are dashing to reap as a lot salt as doable earlier than the approaching mild rain halts manufacturing and wages. |Photograph credit score: Geetha Srimati
Navaneetham, 45, factors to her toes, which have darkened pores and skin from years of working within the salt fields. “I at all times get boils on my toes,” she says.
After spending 4 hours within the salt pans, Navenetham’s toes are coated in boils and blisters. The day’s work isn’t completed but as she nonetheless has cooking and house responsibilities ready for her at house. |Photograph credit score: Geetha Srimati
Unable to afford employees, she and her husband sublet the salt fields and do all of the work themselves. “We won’t pay anybody else, so we deal with all the things,” she says. As a result of work is seasonal, households need to make ends meet with out earnings for nearly six months every year.
Navenetham and her husband, who lease a small plot of salt pans, return within the afternoon to proceed working and test on the situation of the salt. We do all of the work ourselves as a result of we will not afford to rent folks. |Photograph credit score: Geetha Srimati
“We survive by borrowing cash. That is how we eat,” she says. His son, who accomplished his B.Com diploma, additionally joined the salt pans briefly, however couldn’t bear the warmth and left for Chennai.
Tamil Nadu supplies registered salt pan employees with an annual monsoon aid assist of Rs 5,000 to feed their households throughout the wet season (October to December) when manufacturing is halted. This help might be distributed to households registered with the Tamil Nadu Guide Employees Social Safety and Welfare Board.
The subsidy is paid on a family foundation, so just one particular person within the family can obtain the subsidy. Each Navaneetham and her husband are salt pan employees, however just one member of the household receives monetary help of ₹5,000 from the state authorities.
Entire households usually work within the salt fields to make a residing. Kids additionally spend hours within the solar when nobody is house to look after them. |Photograph credit score: Geetha Srimati
Marakkanam is among the conventional salt producing areas of Tamil Nadu, together with main facilities equivalent to Thoothukudi, Vedaranyam and Cuddalore. Nevertheless, not like Thoothukudi, the place massive, steady salt pans permit for large-scale manufacturing, Marakkanam salt pans are comparatively smaller and extra fragmented.
Salt employees stand for 4 to 5 hours beginning at 6 a.m., relying on the quantity of salt they extract. There isn’t a shade from the solar apart from a small improvised shelter or a couple of prosopis bushes. |Photograph credit score: Geetha Srimati
Salt pan managers say Thoothukudi stays the state’s largest salt manufacturing hub as economies of scale preserve manufacturing prices down. “The pots there are a lot bigger, so manufacturing prices are decrease. The standard can also be higher. Consumers are prepared to move salt lengthy distances as a result of the general value continues to be favorable,” he says. In consequence, regardless of excessive transportation prices, merchants usually supply salt from Thoothukudi, making it a extra aggressive market in comparison with Marakkanam.
Every basket of harvested salt weighs roughly 25 kg. Employees stability the salt on their heads and stroll backwards and forwards over the salt pan many instances to construct up the salt pile. |Photograph credit score: Geetha Srimati
Impression of local weather change
The monsoon at all times marks the tip of the salt-making season, however Sarath, 50, a resident of Villivakkam in Marakkanam, says unseasonal summer time showers are eroding the salt-making season he as soon as relied on.
“It is turning into increasingly unstable. I used to have the ability to depend on earnings by way of a lot of the summer time. Now, the season has been lower quick by unseasonal rains, however we’re managing to get by. The monsoon season is the toughest,” she mentioned.
Her household, like most salt pan employees, survives on small quantities of cash borrowed from neighbors, self-help teams, and moneylenders. Through the agricultural low season, when farm work turns into much less and fewer, husbands usually tackle as a lot handbook labor as doable, loading and unloading sacks, with a view to earn day wages. However his earnings is irregular and his money owed pile up. “We’re caught in a recurring cycle of debt, which has prevented us from even educating our youngsters. They’re now doing odd jobs to outlive,” she says.
burden on the physique
Selvarakshmi, 45, reaches out to the touch her neck as she leaves the salt pan after about 4 hours of labor. “…my neck hurts,” she exclaimed with a drained smile. However there isn’t a time to relaxation. She has to give up for a second job.
Selvarakshmi, a widow after her husband died of kidney illness, works two jobs to make ends meet. As soon as the salt is harvested, she heads to a close-by cashew processing manufacturing unit the place she shells the cashews. Work is paid on a chunk fee foundation (₹35 per kg).
Selvarakshmi leaves Salt Farm for a second job. With out household assist, she works a number of jobs to assist her youngsters. |Photograph credit score: Geetha Srimati
“Yesterday I solely completed 5 kilos,” she says. “It is onerous as a result of I’ve to complete work right here after which go. By then, I am already drained.”
Her husband additionally labored within the salt fields and suffered from kidney illness till his dying. In a 2023 research of seven salt pans in India, Kidney Worldwide Report, Researchers from the Sri Ramachandra Institute of Greater Training and Analysis, led by Vidya Venugopal, discovered that 87% of employees are uncovered to harmful ranges of warmth stress, whereas most eat solely about 1 liter of water throughout their workday. Many individuals confirmed indicators of dehydration and warmth pressure, and employees uncovered to extreme warmth had been nearly thrice extra more likely to have decreased kidney operate.
Workers carry a number of bottles of water from house and share it amongst themselves. On very popular days, water is commonly completed by 9am, even when it’s a must to work for one more two hours after which go house. |Photograph credit score: Geetha Srimati
Not too long ago, a 2026 research by Professor Venugopal scientific report performed a survey of 1,560 out of doors employees in 11 districts of Tamil Nadu, together with these employed in salt pans. Researchers discovered that employees uncovered to excessive ranges of warmth stress had been 1.4 instances extra more likely to report diminished productiveness throughout the summer time and had greater than twice the chance of heat-related sicknesses equivalent to dehydration, muscle cramps, complications, nausea, and fatigue.
The employee takes a brief break after his shift whereas the husband finishes his work. This salt pan has no shade apart from a couple of scattered prosopis bushes. |Photograph credit score: Geetha Srimati
unsure future
For 35-year-old Sudha, the day’s work would not finish when she leaves the salt fields. Solely then do different issues start. It is about discovering consuming water.
A resident of Palampakkam village, she mentioned she ran out of water as a result of seawater intrusion had turned the groundwater saline, making it unfit for consuming. “We have now filed petitions and even held demonstrations, however we nonetheless haven’t got consuming water,” she says. Residents primarily rely on close by villages for consuming water.
Like most girls who work within the salt fields, Sudha begins her day with only a cup of tea and biscuits earlier than heading to work. Ache has develop into a part of the job. “Each a part of my physique hurts. The ache is at all times there,” she says.
Some employees attempt to replenish their bottles at fuel stations on their method house after work. Nevertheless, shared autorickshaws that carry automobiles 6-7 km away from villages will incur extra fees if detours are required. As an alternative, most depend on consuming water saved in salt pan cans by the renters who handle the workshops and take house what they’ll.
Leaseholders usually work alongside laborers and preserve small cans of consuming water close to the salt fields. After ending her work, Sudha bottles the remaining water as her village has no consuming water provide resulting from saltwater intrusion. |Photograph credit score: Geetha Srimati
In 2025, frequent summer time showers abruptly ended the salt manufacturing season by June, almost two months sooner than ordinary. Wet days imply days with out work, forcing many households to borrow cash to cowl their every day bills. Employees declare that the state’s one-time monetary assist of Rs 5,000 is much from sufficient to tide them over the months with out earnings.
Salt pan employees are among the many most susceptible communities to local weather change. Their livelihoods rely on lengthy stretches of sizzling, dry climate for salt to crystallize, however even one ill-timed rain can halt manufacturing for a number of days. As rainfall patterns develop into extra erratic and excessive climate occasions develop into extra frequent, financial insecurity for salt employees is anticipated to develop into much more acute, the researchers mentioned.
Salt farm employees carry out work that’s not solely depending on the local weather, but additionally bodily demanding. Their well being and livelihood rely on the climate. |Photograph credit score: Geetha Srimati
Since there are few factories in and round Marakkanam, some girls take up agricultural labor throughout the low season. However even that’s unsure. As Marakkanam is a panchayat city, they don’t seem to be eligible for work underneath the Mahatma Gandhi Nationwide Rural Employment Assure Scheme (MGNREGS) and have little security web if the salt season is lower quick resulting from climate.
M. Krishnamoorthy, state vice-president of the Unorganized Employees’ Federation, mentioned monsoon aid help shouldn’t be handled as charity and the ₹5,000 help was not sufficient to maintain employees by way of the low season.
“Salt is the premise of on a regular basis life. Salt is in each meal we eat and is utilized in each trade. The employees who produce salt needs to be compensated significantly better,” he mentioned, including that the board ought to function by imposing an embargo on salt merchants to generate funds for the welfare of salt employees.
Ladies working in salt pans are paid considerably much less, though they do nearly the identical work as males. Many additionally tackle unpaid caregiving and family chores as soon as they return house, including to the bodily pressure of spending lengthy hours within the solar. |Photograph credit score: Geetha Srimati
He additional mentioned that the state had introduced the institution of a devoted welfare board for salt employees, however this had failed to deal with the challenges confronted by the neighborhood.
Labor ministry officers mentioned the Tamil Nadu State Salt and Salt Employees Welfare Board, introduced in 2023, stays largely non-functional because the ministry considers the way it can function underneath the brand new labor legal guidelines.
(This text is a part of the Asian Institute of Journalism’s Local weather Change Media Hub Mentorship Program.)
