Neem ‹owers provide sustenance for women from Virudhunagar
If you sweep away neem
owers that have fallen from the tree in front of your house every morning and throw it away along with other degradable waste, think twice before disposing them o hereafter as these owers fetch a few hundred rupees for a small group of poor women.
When passers-by happened to see a group of women collecting neem owers, spread like a white carpet, in Bharathi Nagar and Perumalpuram, they were amused. These women from Palavanatham in Aruppukottai block of Virudhunagar district come around 6 a.m. to collect the fallen neem owers.
The women arrive by an early morning train from Virudhunagar. Lakshmi and Bathrakali of Palavanatham say a team of 20 to 30 women collect the neem owers early in the morning before the tra¢c starts and return home by train. They sell these neem
owers for ₹20 a kg to a buyer in Virudhunagar.
“As we manage to collect 20 to 30 kg of owers a day we earn anywhere between ₹400 - ₹600 every day”, say the women who do not know the specic purpose behind the trader purchasing the neem owers. Though the scorching summer months of April and May are the ‘best season’ for collecting neem
owers around Tirunelveli area, this year they have collected much more than compared to the last year. “We used to collect neem
owers from areas close to our village. Since we came to know that this particular area had more number of neem trees, we are coming here. We stock the collected neem owers in a place here after getting permission from the property owners and inform the buyer about the stock. When the buyer’s vehicle comes here, we load the
owers and travel back to our village in the same vehicle,” the women say.
During farming season, these women work as farmhands and collect 67 varieties of herbal plant parts including neem, nerunji, tulsi, keraikizhangu, pungan, manjanaththi, etc. for their livelihood.
The neem owers, blessed with unique honey-like scent noticeable from a distance but never overpowering, attract hundreds of bees. “The neem
ower oil is also used in aromatherapy and has a calming and restorative effect,” says S. Raja Mohamed, a retired Joint Director of Horticulture.
Flowering period of neem is from March to May with fruiting from June to July. Dried neem owers are powdered and mixed with the leaves to prepare beauty packs for treating excess oil secretion, reducing acne and pimple and also to cure itching problems. Dried neem owers help in treating blackheads. Neem contains chemicals that might help reduce blood sugar levels, heal ulcers in the digestive tract, kill bacteria, and prevent plaque from forming in the mouth, Mr. Mohammed says.
Palavanatham village panchayat president R. Anburaj, says people in his village take ‘neem ower kudineer’ instead of ‘Kabasura kudineer’ to boost their immunity.
Mr. Raja Mohammed suggests that the Tamil Nadu Government should encourage these women by forming self-help group and convert it into a business model by providing vehicles for taking collected medicinal plant products to their place and selling it. “Moreover, interested women can also be trained in value-addition of these products to transform them as micro entrepreneurs,” he says.