Kharaghoda, a large village located on the edge of the Little Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, has a population of 12,000. Here's the shocker: 500 of them are widows. That's an unusually high figure but hardly surprising considering they belong to the Agarias, or salt pan workers. Working in harsh conditions and exploited for decades by traders and middlemen, they generally die young; penury and the effect of working in an environment where they are covered in an abrasive coating of salt, drastically reduces their life expectancy. The fact that these tribals, traditional salt workers, also take to tobacco and liquor to escape the reality of their lives, adds to the heavy toll on their bodies. That humans still live in such primitive, almost medieval, conditions is quite unbelievable in this day and age, as is the exploitation. The salt that the Agarias produce is called inland salt as distinct from the coastal regions of Saurashtra where marine salt fetches higher prices. Gujarat produces almost 70 per cent of India's salt and inland salt from this region accounts for almost 40 per cent of that. Inland salt sells for around Rs 3 a kg in the markets of north India but the Agarias get just 15 paise a kg, less than their production cost in most cases. Thus, they are trapped in perpetual debt. A chain of middlemen