In The Salt Pans Of Thoothukudi, A ₹-10 Patriarchal Tax On Dalit Women Speaks To Enduring National Discrimination

In the salt pans of Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu, Dalit women from the Paraiyar community carry sacks of salt—each weighing 25 kilograms—under a scorching sun for a sum of ₹590 a day. The amount is already less than the daily minimum wage of ₹697 paid for skilled labour in the state. In addition to their labour being undervalued, the women are paid ₹10 less than the men working beside them. This gap amounts to ₹300 a month, and is justified by their employers (mostly oppressor caste Nadars) by invoking a “tradition” of marginally underpaying Dalit women labourers. It is a deliberate reminder of the caste hierarchy and their position in it.

An order from the Labour Court in 2022 directing equal minimum wages for salt workers has failed to change this practice. The article situates this wage reduction within a labour landscape where Dalit women work in considerable numbers and often conduct the most physically demanding work. It traces the physical toll of this labour on their bodies: chronic back pain, urinary tract infections, uterine prolapse, menstrual ill-health, and working into late pregnancy, with no toilets or drinking water at the site. The deduction of ₹10 then emerges as an engineered caste-patriarchal humiliation reproduced across generations, and is consistent with the wage disparity women are subjected to across sectors and regions.