"These are people who are neglected and mistreated," Hong Chi-guk, a 64-year-old salt farmer in Sinui, told the AP.
By Sandra Bisin Pemba island, Zanzibar, Tanzania, 5 November 2013 - Mbarouk Hamad Yussaf, a salt farmer in Pemba island, Zanzibar, sighs with relief.
United Republic of Tanzania: Zanzibar fights a hidden hunger with iodized salt PEMBA ISLAND, United Republic of Tanzania, 8 November 2013 – Mbarouk Hamad Yussaf, a salt farmer in Pemba Island, Zanzibar, sighs with relief.
But life for salt farmers is gradually changing.
With their improved income, Surendranagar's salt farmers often invest in more salt pans, as well as further equipment and transport to run their farms independently, without needing to rely as much on third parties.
Yet little has changed on the islands, according to a months-long investigation by the AP based on court and police documents and dozens of interviews with freed slaves, salt farmers, villagers and officials.
The Salt Workers Economic Empowerment Program (SWEEP), a joint initiative between the non-profit Global Fairness Initiative (GFI and SEWAA, is working to help female salt farmers in Gujarat gain the commercial and technical knowledge to farm salt more sustainably and profitably as the risk of erratic, extreme weather looms.
Collaboration between researchers, salt farmers and planning authorities as to how best to maintain salt-pans as potential shorebird roost sites such as in the Inner Gulf of Thailand is urgently needed in order to maintain habitat for shorebird populations in critical wintering and staging areas of this flyway.
Whether it is salt farmers in India embracing solar power or wind companies creating tens of thousands of jobs in America, people are providing a vision for the clean energy future.
Like other salt farmers in Pemba, Yussaf started iodising salt in 2005.
