Women coconut tree climbers to scale new heights :

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Coconut tree climbing is a rewarding profession even for women.

One woman says she climbs around 40 coconut trees per day and the earning is pretty good.

The Kudumbasree Kozhikode District Mission is planning to set up a district level unit of women coconut tree climbers soon. The plan to form the unit came after the district-level anniversary celebrations of the mission held recently in Kozhikode where 15 women from the district took part in a coconut tree climbing competition. The unit will be formed by including all of them.

“A district unit of skilled coconut tree climbers and their network will be equally beneficial to the public as well as the members of the unit. The plan is to have at least one climber per block panchayat. They will be centrally coordinated,” said Kudumbasree District Coordinator T.P. Mohammed Basheer.

Priya Biju from Kattippara, who bagged the first place in the district-level competition and third place at the State level, said coconut tree climbing was a “highly rewarding profession” even for women.

“I climb around 40 coconut trees per day and my job is done mostly by mid afternoon. I have enough time to attend to my family. The earning is pretty good as well,” she said.

Priya has been climbing coconut trees for the past four years. She was one of the 21 women who were trained for it by the Kattippara Krishi Bhavan. Ironically, she was the only one who dared to make a living out of it. “Others had restrictions from their families,” she said.

There are quite a number of women coconut tree climbers in the district, especially in Unnikulam and Kodenchery regions. The skill and professionalism of the women have improved their acceptability.

“Women often hire us to climb their trees for safety reasons,” Priya said. She pointed out that the proposed unit could make it further big if they learned how to extract and process Neera, which is gaining popularity these days. 

Source : The Hindu