Women wage battle on shrinking farmlands

They have mastered the art of apportioning candies bought for two rupees among ten of them. For the women of Vengadangal and Sembiyaneri hamlets of Vegadangal panchayat here, this is perhaps the most judicious way of sharing the pittance they earn as wage after a day's labour in the paddy fields in adjoining panchayats. These women constitute a disproportionately large labour force working on depleting agricultural lands shrinking due to indiscriminate sand mining and a general fall in cultivable lands in Vengadangal panchayat of Keezhvelur block here. The hummocky landscape of green mounds and barren troughs is what is left of erstwhile lush paddy plains. The largely Adi Dravida population of the panchayat, bereft of asset ownership in the form of lands, supplies the farm labour force. The lands are predominantly owned by absentee landowners who have no stakes in cultivation. Three years ago, when sand mining crept in on isolated fields, it was seen as profitable for the absentee landowners, who gave away their lands for mining. Today, the picture one sees is that of large expanses of gorged-out earth over 18 feet deep. It has made cultivation inconceivable even in adjoining fields. The wetland depletion in these parts was further accentuated by a power project for which 300 hectares were acquired. A hectare of land provides labour for over 140 people per season, with women constituting the major work force. But, with large tracts of land going out of cultivation, they are driven to share fields that may just require fewer women and, eventually, to destitution. “When 70 of us work in a field that may require just 10 women, we end up with wages next to nothing,” says Sakunthalai, a single mother. There are bad days and then the occasional good ones. Says Soundaravalli, “We may return home with Rs.25, and most often we return with just Rs.2. You do not get to drink even tea with that.” “When the money earned is way too paltry, we buy betel leaves or candies and share.” According to an official, there are no rules prohibiting mining on agricultural lands. While official records state that only 3.38 ha of wetlands were licensed for sand quarrying locals contend that about 12 ha had been let out. The villagers have filed a PIL at the Madras High Court seeking a stay on approvals for mining on agricultural lands. The panchayat has not seen any mining activity in the past year following local resistance. But, the already-ravaged lands continue to drive women long distances in search of work for a lowly single digit wage on many a desperate day.