For 15 years Prashanth, a 37-year-old villager living near Thirthahally in Karnataka, slaved at a granite quarry and a petrol station, although he was an educated man who had completed a pre-university course. The little he earned disappeared into paying for food and other basic expenses. The net result was that he was always in debt.
Then he enrolled for a five-day skill training course in areca nut harvesting in Thirthahally. Areca nut trees have no branches and grow upright to about 50 feet. Climbing such trees, harvesting their nuts and spraying pesticides requires. . .
