Render: Goa's dying occupation
Goa has earned a lot of coconut trees, spanning across the state. It does not only provide us with coconuts but also with so many other benefits. It particularly gives us, feni (drink) which is very locally produced in Goa, and the one that produces this is called the RENDER (TODDY TAPPER).
On 15th March I meet one of my well-known Render who is now supposedly an extinct person. Very few of these are left in
the state because there is a lack of demand and they are just leaving their jobs.
Today we are seeing what their story is, what they have to tell us, and what is
this concept of MADECHO SUR, let’s find out.
Meet
Premnath Velip who is in his 40s and is very active. He is the eldest brother
in their family. He's been working as a render for the past 20 years. He said,
“I am carrying forward my father’s profession. I have done this work and raised my kids. I have educated them. I have not studied much.”
Let’s take a glance at the statistics which
clearly shows the decline of render in the state of India. In 2000 (10 years back)
there were around 10,000 renders and in 2020 there are only 122 renders. He
said, “Present generation is not interested in this work. Nowadays youth prefer
to work on ships or go abroad. They say there are hardly any jobs in Goa. Many
Goans who were even working in government jobs left and went to other countries”.
Toddy tapping is one of the major
traditional occupations of Goa since time immemorial. And a large
population was always involved in this activity. Goa being in a coastal state
has been abundantly blessed with many palm trees across the state. This is one
tree that has multiple uses, and each part of the tree is used. No wonder a
large section of the population was dependent on coconut trees for daily bread. Renders are one of the few people who earn their livelihoods on
this wonder tree.
He also told, “we climb the coconut tree
three times a day i.e. early in the morning at 5 am to 5:30 am, then at 11:30
am and at 6:30 pm in the evening. Actually, toddy tapping is a very simple
activity of just extracting sur or toddy from
the crown of the coconut tree. It is like white milk-like liquid which is sold
or distilled in the distilleries to extract coconut feni. Raw toddy is used
in a variety of food items. Most popular amongst them is the traditional sweet
dish prepared from rice called sanna.
Toddy is also used for the fermentation of the Goan pao or bread. It is also used to produce vinegar which is a common
ingredient, especially in Christian cuisine. Further, he said, “Customers are
of course there. There are a lot of sales for toddy for using it in sanna
preparations. Christians do consume quite a lot of sanna, as they make a lot of
sannas for the feast. During feasts, the prayers in the church were stopped (due to
Covid-19) but for the feast they require it. At home, we make sanna, pork, beef,
mutton, chicken, etc. we cook all of this during any function in Goa”.
The most common use of toddy is to distill
feni which is in high demand in bars and taverns across the state. He also told,
“once I shut business everything will be over. As his kids won’t continue with
this work. They won’t be able to do it. I used to go to pluck coconuts too. I
used to pluck 40 coconut trees in a day. I used to work at someone’s place. That
time I used to get 5 rupees per tree and now it is 100 rupees to pluck coconuts
from one tree”.
He also told that, “he sells the sur to get
money. Extracting coconut feni fetches money. If he extracts special coconut
feni 3 times processed then he gets around 3000 rupees and for toddy 1300
rupees”.
This profession is not attracting the
younger generation for two major reasons. One is the huge risk involved in the
profession and two is due to poor returns. He told that “we do slip many a time from the coconut tree, but God saves him every time”.
The several accidental deaths of the render
after falling from the coconut trees in the state for all these years. Poor
returns from this activity that demand extreme hard work and risk also keep the young generation away from this aged old profession. Since ancient times nothing
has changed in terms of the equipment used by the Indian render nor the technique
to carry out their job.
This has made the profession unattractive
to the younger generation. It's high time that the government steps in and comes
up with modern methods and safety measures to make this age-old profession
attractive to the younger generation. Or the day is not too far when the
render will only be seen in the ethnographic museum.
