Theni: "The vehicle has come ... Get up fast .. This is the only vehicle ... There are no other means to go to ... Leave early, only then you can return on time in the evening " - these phrases of the cardamom workers used to echo at 5 in the morning in Theni every day before it was abruptly silenced due to COVID-19.
Before the pandemic struck India, tens of thousands of workers from Theni district used to travel to Kerala to work in the cardamom estates. Convoys of vehicles transporting the workers would ply in the morning and evening on the mountain Ghat roads through Kumuli, Kambam Mettu and Podimettu.
More than 5,000 workers from Bodi, Silamalai, Rasingapuram, Thevaram, Kombay, Uthamapalayam, Kambam, Cuddalore and surrounding areas of Theni were directly dependent on Kerala's cardamom plantation estates and indirectly more than 1000 drivers who transported these workers in leased vehicles relied on it for their livelihood.
But, like all-over the world, the corona-induced lockdown has adversely affected the livelihood of the plantation workers of Theni.
Kerala's cardamom is world-famous and due to this, the cultivation is done on vast acres of land.
About 1.25 lakh acres of land in Vandiperiyaru, Udumbancholai, Peermedu, Devikulam and Rajakadu of the Irukki district of Kerala is dedicated to cardamom plantation. Of these, about 40 to 50 per cent of the cardamom estates are owned by the Tamils.
Besides owning their share, the Tamilians also take care and maintain the entire cultivation of Kerala farmers as well in which the Theni workers play the most important role.
Maintenance work such as sowing, fertilizing using manures, watering, spraying of crop catalysts; and once the plants are grown, beans plucking, drying and later assorting them based on the quality and sending to the marketplace, all is done by the workers. The entire process goes on throughout the year and the workers earn from Rs 400 to Rs 500 per head per day.
However, due to the lockdown, they are now jobless and are struggling to make ends meet.
"We have been struggling without any income whatsoever for the last five months and with no other alternative work, we are struggling to make both ends meet without enough money for our day-to-day life. If this situation continues, we will be pushed to the inevitable, commit suicide with our family. We live unnerved only in the hope that the government will do something and find a way out of this,” a worker said.
Workers not the only one suffering, owners in losses too
Inayat Khan, vice president of the Cardamom farmers' association said that owners of the cardamon plantations are also facing huge losses and the future remains uncertain.
"Having suffered losses for the last two years, due to unprecedented floods in 2018 and dearth of rains in 2019 there was hope that this year could bring some solace. Unexpectedly, this corona infection has affected everything. Due to the inability to get e-passes, we are unable to go to Kerala and in the absence of proper maintenance the cardamom plants have withered into weeds," he said.
Adding that some of the cultivators could not visit their own lands in the absence of permission of the Kerala Government, some of them had the land on a contract and given on lease for farming he said, "Their plight cannot be described in words. As of now, the monsoon season is on and Cardamom is in the ripened stage. Yields are good but outgo is dwindling due to lack of proper maintenance. The yield has also reduced to around 30,000 kg only whereas, earlier it used to be 60,000 kg."
Cardamom is, of course, the queen of spices, but the livelihoods of the plantation workers have now lost their fragrance.
The only demand of the poor workers now is that the two states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, discuss and reach a consensus in order to protect the livelihoods of the cardamom plantation workers.
