Abstract
This paper discusses a case study located on the northern shore of the Gulf of Kutch in the western Indian state of Gujarat. Specifically the paper explores the major characteristics of small scale fisheries practiced by the Muslim Wagher community and investigate the challenges and dilemmas faced by them in their pursuit of a livelihood in fisheries. Wagher fishers have occupied the lowest rungs in local continuums of social and economic status historically. Their livelihoods and conditions of living have become particularly precarious since the early 2000s when the government of Gujarat embarked on an ambitious plan for port-based industrialisation and privatisation of vast tracts of wastelands, grasslands and coast line. Given this context, the paper focuses attention on the relations of exchange like market-tying informal credit contracts widely used by traders to consolidate their control over marketing processes and their impact on the lives and livelihoods of Wagher fishers. It is argued that the unfreedom that arises from the embeddedness of market transactions in social interactions constrains the ability of Wagher fishers to effectively resist ongoing processes of economic exploitation and coastal expropriation, or to advocate for their fair inclusion in social and economic development.
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Source: https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/moon/phases.html; Interviews with fishers
Source: Authors’ conceptualisation based on field work data
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18 April 2024
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40152-024-00362-4
Notes
As per the Draft of National Fisheries Policy 2020 though artisanal and small-scale fishers dominate the marine fishing community, about 98 percent of the capture fish production emanates from the mechanised and motorised sector.
The Kutch earthquake of 26 January 2001 was one of the most devastating natural disasters occurred in India in the twentieth century. The earthquake resulted in severe and widespread damage to property and an estimated death toll of about 14.000. Kutch alone accounted for 88 per cent of the deaths. See, Mishra (2004).
As per the Fisheries Statistics of Gujarat 2020–21, there are 7129 pagadiya fishers in the state, of whom 622 are in Kutch.
Studies elsewhere have documented how artisanal fishers in countries like Malawi (Nsiku 2007), Vanuatu (Hickey 2007), and northern Australia (Phelan 2007) make use of their knowledge of the lunar phenomenon to optimise fishing efforts. In the case of India, Libini and Khan (2012), in their study of the Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu, noted variations in fish caught by gillnets during different lunar phases. Particularly, they observed that seven or eight days from the New Moon or Full Moon are a good time for shrimp fishing. Similarly, Giri et al. (2019), who studied Hilsa dynamics with respect to lunar phases in the northern Bay of Bengal, found a higher catch during the waning crescent and waxing gibbous phases or the days immediately preceding the new moon and full moon.
The only processing factory set up by a trading family in Bhadreshwar worked for about a decade. After that, it was closed down as they found that the varieties and volumes of fish were not adequate to run a factory to capacity. Personal interview with Javedbhai Juma, Bavdi bander, Bhadreshwar, November 28, 2021.
In the distant domestic markets, the agents or dealers procure dried fish either based on predetermined prices negotiated before the consignment is despatched or against advances previously made. The traders generally deal with exporters directly using the facility of a letter of credit to settle trade payments. A letter of credit is a popular payment instrument in international trade. It is a written commitment from a bank on behalf of the importer that payment will be made to the exporter under agreed terms and conditions (either on demand or at a specific point in time).
For a detailed exposition of how debt evolves into the essenceof fisher-trader relationship, see, the case study by Ferolin (2014) of the Panguil Bay peasant fishing system in the Philippines.
The case details are discussed in Budha Ismail Jam et al. vs. IFC: an Indian fishing community takes on the World Bank’, available at https://earthrights.org/.
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The paper is drawn out from the scoping research done on the Mundra coast as part of Phase 1 of the project titled Dried Fish Matters: Mapping the social economy of dried fish in South and Southeast Asia for enhanced wellbeing and nutrition (DFM Project) with financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Grant/Award Number: 895–2018-1017) and carried out at the Gujarat Institute of Development Research (GIDR), Ahmedabad, India. Detailed comments and suggestions from Derek Johnson, Thijs Schut, Nireka Weeratunge and an anonymous referee were immensely helpful in bringing the paper to its final shape. Valuable research support by Arti Oza and Aparna Raj is gratefully acknowledged.
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Bharat Patel is actively associated with the fish-workers’ collectives and the fish producer company in the study region.
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Nair, T., Patel, B. & Mishra, R.N. Trapped in a gulf of hope and despair: the Wagher small scale fisheries on the Kutch coast of Gujarat, India. Maritime Studies 23, 17 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40152-024-00357-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40152-024-00357-1