Idukki (Kerala): Age is just a number for this Kerala woman, who is breaking all the barriers and stereotypes. At 68, Mariammakutti Varghese climbs onto the coconut tree where she first cleans the treetop and then plucks the ripe coconuts. Age does not stop her from doing anything, be it climbing the trees or preparing the land for cultivation. This farmer woman has a steely will and a never-ending passion when it comes to agriculture.
Varghese, a resident of Irumbupalam, Adimali in Idukki became a farmer at the age of 22. She started her fight with all adverse conditions and turned her three-and-a-half acre farmland into an agricultural wonderland. She starts her farm work every day at 6 am, starting with tapping her rubber trees. She then takes care of her cattle and goats, moving on to the farming needs of pepper, nutmegs, cardamom and coconut.
She does not wait for anyone to pluck the coconuts in her farmland and does it herself. To learn the skill, she attended a special class for coconut tree climbing conducted for 'Kudumbasree' (Kerala's women's self-help group) and learned it only a few years ago. She was presented with a tree-climbing device, which she now uses to pluck coconuts from her farmland.
Mariakutti was left to fend for herself when her husband died leaving her two children with her. She was not ready to sit idle, but got engaged in farming and gave decent education for her children and got them settled. She is not ready to retire even at this age."I will never get tired of doing farm work. I keep on doing them till sunset," Varghese says.
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