It is said that only a navel isn't burnt during the cremation fire, but for this Indian community, it isn't just the navel but also their feet. They are the Agariyas, the salt farmers from Gujarat's Little Rann of Kutch area.
There actually is a scientific reason behind, and result of the same sounds pretty dreadful. This is mainly because of severe physical calcification. Decades of wading barefoot in hyper-saline groundwater cause their bones and skin to absorb excess minerals and calcium, eventually making their lower limbs stiff, abnormally dense and fire-resistant.
However gross or painful it may sound, the funeral pyre of an Agariya often leaves behind their unburnt feet, resulting in the families collecting the unburnt foot remains and separately bury them in salt-covered pits for the feet to decompose.
Not just the bone calcification but also dehydrated tissues, due to years of exposure to harsh salt stripping the skin and tissues of natural moisture and fat. Without these combustible elements, the tissues act like dead tissue and fails to catch fire. Also, the constant contact with salt damages tissues, reducing blood circulation, hardening the flesh into a tough, leathery state.
The Agariya reside in their native places only during the monsoon season and migrate to the salt farms at Little Rann of Kutch for the rest of the year, i.e. for 8-9 months. In Gujarat, salt is made along the coast using sea water using sub-soil brine.
The salt farmers, even after acing in their jobs for almost 600 years, has a very poor economic condition, with majority of them being landless. As they reside in faraway places for most of the time in a year, they are left out from welfare schemes like housing or social security.
Every time they migrate to salt farms, they make small huts to prepare themselves for salt pans. A salt pan is a natural geological formation (a salt flat) or a shallow, artificial pond used to extract salt through evaporation of water. During rains salt pans made during previous years are washed away, making them to start their lives afresh every season, besides struggling with health issues, and harsh climatic conditions Agariyas have to struggle for basic services like water supply, road, electricity, health services and such since their workplace and salt pan are usually not part of any village.
Agariya community have also very limited access to formal credit system, making them depend on the advance amount taken from the trader, which also compells them to sale their salt at low price. Till day, the price that an Agariya gets for a kg of salt is something as low as 25 to 30 paisa. They do not have access to infrastructure used for value addition and market. The people from the community have to bear natural and human made calamities as their crop (salt) is not insured under any scheme.
Quite interestingly, it is the Agariya community who produces roughly 70-75% of India's salt but faces extreme poverty, earning mere rupees per 20 kg of harvested salt. Their backbreaking labour in 45 to 50-degree Celsius temperatures results in severe occupational hazards, including blindness from sun glare off the salt, skin ulceration, and leg disfigurement.
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