Business and Economy

India’s salt workers endure brutal heat in Gujarat’s remote desert

A salt pan worker rakes salt on an alkali flat in the Little Rann of Kutch region in Gujarat. [Shammi Mehra/AFP]

In the blinding white glare of the salt flats, workers rake shallow pans of brine each day, coaxing out crystals that help Gujarat produce most of India’s salt. [Shammi Mehra/AFP]

Regular raking of the salt pans ensures even crystalisation. [Shammi Mehra/AFP]

Researchers say the salt pan workers in Gujarat suffer from high levels of dehydration and early signs of kidney malfunction. [Shammi Mehra/AFP]

On the remote salt pans with no electricity or healthcare, the workers rely on a single water tanker that arrives every 25 days to supply all their drinking and washing needs. [Shammi Mehra/AFP]

A salt pan worker holds a handful of harvested salt. [Shammi Mehra/AFP]

Despite rising heatwaves and storms that can erase months of work overnight, salt pan families return to the Little Rann each year, saying they have no other way to earn a living. [Shammi Mehra/AFP]

A salt pan worker carries a rare pair of rubber boots as she walks across an alkali flat in Gujarat’s Little Rann of Kutch. The protective footwear shields workers’ feet from corrosive brine that can crack exposed skin so deeply it bleeds. [Shammi Mehra/AFP]

Rows of white salt mounds rise out of the desert, the result of weeks of raking and shovelling by families who earn only a few hundred dollars for a season’s labour. [Shammi Mehra/AFP]

A truck drives past solar panels while transporting harvested salt from an alkali flat at the Little Rann of Kutch region in Gujarat. [Shammi Mehra/AFP]