India produces 15 billion coconuts a year. And each of the 15 billion is hand plucked. Coconuts alone feed a billion dollar industry, with every bit of the fruit used in some form or the other, including as ingredients in beauty products. Its fibres are exported to different countries where they are used to make doormats.
The state of Kerala produces 54 percent of India’s coconut. Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, West Bengal, Assam, Goa, Daman and Diu, Lakshwadeep and Gujarat are other coconut producing states. But Kerala today is faced with acute shortage of coconut pluckers which threatens one of its most important industries.
Acute shortage of pluckers
The shortage is caused by two factors. First, the inherent risk associated with the job. Secondly, with Kerala being a relatively prosperous and well-governed state with 100 percent literacy, more and more young people are moving away from this hereditary job. Coconut plucking has been concentrated among the Dalits, or the untouchable caste. As literacy in the state grew and caste system gradually became unshackled, the educated youth no more saw it as a desirable profession. This, in spite of the fact that pluckers can make $8 a day in a country where most earn less that $2 a day.
The state government has stumbled upon a novel way of weaning the youth back, by giving a garb of respectability to the profession. And nothing can be more respectable than a government job.
Certified coconut pluckers
The Kozhikode district collectorate recently called for applications for training and employment in as diverse trades as electrical repairs, plumbing, carpentry and coconut plucking, and received a flood of applications, specially for coconut plucking. Among the applicants were graduates, diploma holders and even Gulf returnees, all wanting to be certified as coconut pluckers.
Some coconut producing countries have experimented with mechanical devices to elevate pluckers to the top. In other countries monkeys are trained to do the job. But machines didn’t work in India because of unsuitable terrains or because costs were prohibitive. The Kozikode district will provide simple climbing devices along with training to climb trees. This, with the additional stamp of government sponsorship and a life-term insurance cover, is expected to motivate enough to take up this endangered profession once again.
Watch video on climbing coconut tree with bare hands
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