Hanging behind her is the traditional black jug toddy tappers in Kerala use when they climb coconut trees. Sheeja has chosen comfortable clothes for the job – a salwar and top, a shirt, a lungi. Two big knives hang on a rope tied around her waist, same as the jug. Placing her feet on the ropes tied around a tall tree, Sheeja climbs to reach the top and gets to work, tapping the toddy.
It was four months ago that Sheeja began doing the job, commonly done by men, in Kannur. It is rare to see a woman in this line of work – and according to a report in The Hindu, she is the only woman from Kerala to do so. “That’s what I have been hearing, but I don’t really know,” Sheeja tells TNM over the phone from Panniyode, Kannur, where her home is – it is in a forest area, and the signal is poor.
She moves around the house and tells her tale. “I began doing this when my husband, who was a toddy tapper, got injured after a bike accident. He was travelling on his bike with the toddy when the accident happened, and his hands got injured. He didn’t recover properly even after six months. So, he began training me to do the work.”
Jayakumar, Sheeja’s husband, stood below, and gave directions as Sheeja climbed the tree. At first she tried with shorter trees. “It was not easy, but difficult circumstances made me do it somehow,” she says. One of the challenges she faced earlier was that she would feel nauseous when there was a breeze and she was climbing a tall tree. But she is used to it now.
It wasn’t easy being a woman in this line of work either. She used to be teased, and would hide behind vehicles to avoid the taunts. However, after the media attention she has received, things have changed. “Now everyone says good things about it,” she says.
Sheeja climbs eight trees a day now. But it is hardly enough to make ends meet. She has to pay Rs 300 to the tree owner every month which leaves very little for Sheeja and family to live by.
Sheeja and Jayakumar have two children – one who studies in class 8, and the other in class 5. While she used to go for work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme earlier, she now supports the family by tapping toddy.