Women padelis soar high

PANAJI: The proverbial glass ceiling of coconut plucking in Goa, which was till recently the exclusive domain of the dwindling breed of male coconut pluckers, has been broken. A group of 32 rural women from Kasarvanem village in Pernem taluka recently underwent a five-day training programme learning to climb coconut trees. The programmes was organised by the Goa Rural Development Agency (RDA).
Though initially hesitant, the women, aged between 27 to 55 years, were enthused with encouragement and support they received from their husbands and other family members.One of them, Praveen Naik (27) of the Azad Self-Help Group (SHG), Bharawada, Kasarvanem told STOI that she along with her fellow women villagers enthusiastically gave their names for the training programme conducted in their village.
“In the initial days, we found it difficult to climb the coconut tree due to the rains as this training programme was conducted in the months of July-August,” said a participant Praveen Naik of the Azad Self-Help Group (SHG), Bharawada, Kasarvanem. Interestingly, the 27-year-old padeli (woman coconut plucker), who experienced some difficulty in climbing down from the coconut tree on the first day of training, went on to defeat three other contestants to bag the first prize in a competition organised of climbing the coconut tree in a minute.
Her co-villager, 55-year-old padeli Shariya Gaude who recently underwent a cataract operation, climbed the coconut tree on the third day of training itself.
The padelis have now become a hit in their village. In a generous gesture, the women, who usually charge between Rs 80 to 90 to climb a tree, refused to accept any payment from the villagers for services rendered during the recent Ganesh Chaturthi festival.
“The RDA commenced this programme under the Goa State Rural Livelihood Mission (GSRLM) in Pernem in June this year. Twenty-two women have been trained to climb coconut trees because there is an acute scarcity of coconut pluckers in the state,” RDA director Vasudev Shetye told TOI.
“Of the 32 SHG members registered for the training programme called ‘Friends of Coconut Tree’ conducted by Sanjeev Mayenkar, project director of the Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA) , 22 have successfully completed the course. They will now undergo a one-day refresher course. We will also provide them with insurance cover,” said RDA official Bhaskar Narulkar.
Narulkar also said that the agency has received 31 names of interested candidates from the South Goa District Rural Development Agency. “We have requested each panchayat for at least two or three names of candidates. We want to ensure specialised padelis as there will be saturation if there are 10 or 15 padelis in each village,” he said.