Gudiyatham’s women get a whole new view — from the canopy

A group of women is making a living out of climbing coconut trees

Women in Gudiyatham have broken into a male-dominated occupation of climbing coconut trees.— PHOTO: C. VENKATACHALAPATHY

A group of women in Gudiyatham has stormed a male bastion and is scaling new heights.

This intrepid batch of 25 has the day job of climbing coconut trees. The members scale 50-foot tall trees using the coconut tree climbing machines of Kerala’s Coconut Development Board. Some of them have graduated to become trainers themselves. The farm initiative was launched by the Department of Rural Development’s Pudhu Vaazhvu Project (PVP), and the results have thrilled the trainees: they now have a rewarding occupation and financial independence.

PVP officials said 25 women from two clusters in Gudiyatham – Nellurpettai and Valathur have been trained so far. These clusters are in villages such as Mukundram, Modikuppam, Sempalli, Agravaram, Ananganallur, Moongapattu and Perumbadi. “We planned to train 50 women and brought in a master trainer from Kerala for this batch of 25. We purchased 10 coconut tree climbing machines to get them going,” said S.K. Sampath Kumar, district project manager, PVP, Vellore.

With coconut trees becoming a common feature in Vellore, tree climbers are in demand. There are 38 lakh coconut trees in the district, of which 19 lakh trees are in the PVP project area covering five blocks – Pernambut, Gudiyatham, Alangayam, Madhanur and Timiri. Gudiyatham block alone has 5.20 lakh trees, T.S.B. Sampath, agriculture consultant for PVP said.

Five-minute climb

The climb using the device takes less than five minutes and the women get down to work, plucking coconuts and removing dried fronds. A safety belt is part of the design. Yet, the beginning was not easy for K. Usha, who later became a trainer herself. “I told the officials that I will not climb a tree. Even my family was apprehensive. Now, all that has changed,” she said.

G. Amutha, another trainer, overcame her fear of heights, while 52-year-old Manonmani was determined to get trained although she did not meet the age norm of 25 to 35 years.

“Earlier, we used to do daily wage work and earn about Rs. 100. Now, we make at least Rs. 300 a day if we work during morning hours alone. In fact, I used the money I earned attending to trees near my house to celebrate Deepavali,” Amutha pointed out.

Both Usha and Amutha will soon travel to Virudhunagar to train women in that region.

Uniforms coming

S. Subash Chandra, assistant project manager, PVP said the programme was getting uniforms ready for the women. Insurance cover was also planned.