Trapped between lockdown and mega development plans, India’s fishworkers left to fend for themselves
On April 28, a convoy of 55 buses carrying approximately 4,000 fishermen left from Gujarat’s Veraval harbour on a 50-hour journey to Andhra Pradesh. These fishers had been stranded on their boats for nearly five weeks due to the sudden announcement of the Covid-19 nationwide lockdown from March 25.
Unable to earn a living or travel back to their villages, they were living in cramped conditions on their boats with limited access to food and water. It took the deaths of two fishers and the extensive media coverage that followed for the governments of Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh to take action.
This was only one of many problems India’s estimated 16 million fishers have had to deal with since the lockdown started. The lockdown effectively paralysed the entire fisheries sector, leaving workers uncertain about how they would earn a living.
Fishers who had ventured out to sea before the lockdown returned to discover that they could not land or sell their catches and had to discard tonnes of high-value catch overboard or sell them at throwaway prices. Overnight, supply chains had collapsed, shutting down transport and cold storage facilities, causing tremendous wastage and significant losses.
As the lockdown progressed, thousands of fishworkers continued to be stranded in fishing harbours across...
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