The fate of hundreds of families of juice collectors from the date palm trees of the coastal district of Kendrapada now hangs in balance with very few customers turning to them. Many consider tapping of juices from date palm trees as a debased profession even as the juice used to be very popular in past, particularly among the daily wagers. It provided relaxation after a hard day’s work. Known as ‘toddy’, the mass consumption of the juice at times strengthened social relation among the people.
“I used to get a rush of customers during summer at my toddy shop in past years. But that has become the thing of the past. Now-a-days, hardly 100 customers throng my shop,” lamented Ganeswar Behera, a vendor.
The Toddy sellers pay auction money to the Government for collecting juice from the road side trees. But the business is not all thatencouraging, said Girish Behera, a youth.
However, all the same, Raghunath Behera (60) of Oldhi, who is a toddy collector loves his job, taps his quota of three date trees twice daily and leads a simple life.
In many villages, date tree owners and lease-holders have been collecting juice with the help of some toddy collectors. Now-a-days, many youth from other communities also collect juices from the date trees. They climb on the date trees to fix earthen pots to collect the juice. Early morning, the collectors collect juice and supply it to the tree owners. In exchange, they get their remuneration.
Toddy collectors, however, fight new demons today. The Government’s excise policy is pushing the delicate balance of the date juice trade to the limits of endurance.
“Drinking and selling of date juice is not illegal as per law. But many toddy sellers mix liquor , sleeping pills , urea and other intoxicated things with the date juice and sell to the customers to earn more money for which we take action against them,” said Inspector of District Excise Department Harish Chandra Sethy.