In India, dried fish have been traditionally important to small-scale fishing economies, contributed to food and nutritional security of large segments of population (especially the poor), and supported a wide range of livelihoods. Since the beginning of the 1990s, as Indian fisheries sector underwent a radical transformation, the dried fish processing sector was subject to significant upheavals. While the early stages of modernisation of Indian fisheries had enhanced the women’s access to fish, its latter stages were characterised by the dried fish value chains having to cope with reduced availability and access to fish; competition from other, more lucrative, value chains and markets; and overall decline in the drying operations. Women, who constituted the majority of actors in dried fish production and trade, faced increasing challenges to their livelihoods that required, on the one hand, having to make a number of adaptations to their fish processing and trade practices and, on the other, attempting to reduce their dependence on fish drying and switch to other occupations.
Many of these transformative changes remained poorly understood and documented, especially from a development policy perspective. District Fishermen Youth Welfare Association (DFYWA), an NGO working with the small-scale fishers on the east coast of India, undertook a study to obtain better understanding of the changing livelihood context of women dried fish processors, and its consequences on their quality of life, in the northern coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh. A major theme underlying the study has been to gain an historical perspective, based on the perspective of women involved in the dried fish trade, on the long-term viability of dried fish as a source of livelihoods, and in terms of their contribution to food security and small-scale fishing economies.
The focus of the study was firmly on women: to understand how a set of women, following a traditionally important way of life, coped with the impacts of major changes happening within and beyond their area of work, and frequently beyond their control or understanding. The adaptability, flexibility, and resilience shown by the women, it was expected, would not only form the basis of any policy/development actions to improve their conditions, but also have relevance to a wider range of people confronting similar trends and challenges in their own livelihoods in other activities/sectors.
Following a categorisation of the women fish processors (who were a diverse and disparate lot) according to their socio-economic conditions, the study attempted to understand the current status of dried fish production and the key trends affecting the activities and actors from a livelihoods perspective. It aimed to assess the current and long-term impacts of new sources of demand, such as industrial fishmeal, on the dried fish production and trade. It attempted to understand the strategies adopted by women (in terms of mitigation, adaptation, and diversification) to cope with the challenges and to assess the effectiveness and sustainability of such responses. Based on the magnitude of the challenges and women’s responses to them, the study tried to identify broad areas of action to inform and initiate future policy and support processes for more robust and realistic support systems to be put in place.
The study received partial support from the research project, ‘Dried Fish Matters: Mapping the social economy of dried fish in South and Southeast Asia for enhanced wellbeing and nutrition’, being implemented by the University of Manitoba, Canada, with support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
Reference
Salagrama, Venkatesh, and Arjili Dasu. 2021. “Living on the Edge: Perspectives of the Small-Scale Women Fish Processors of Northern Coastal Andhra Pradesh, India.” DFM Reports. India: District Fishermen Youth Welfare Association. [DFM-DFYWA_RPT_Living-on-the-edge_2021-08-25_FINAL.pdf]
The District Fishermen Youth Welfare Association (DFYWA) is a community-based non-governmental organisation working with the small-scale fishers and fishworkers of northern Andhra Pradesh since 1992, implementing activities focused on developing sustainable fisheries-based livelihoods for men and women. This working paper is the first in the proposed series, focusing upon the fisherwomen involved in dried fish trade covering the four northern coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh. The working paper also takes a sideways glance at the potential impacts of the industrial fishmeal production on the small-scale processed fish production in the target communities. It is the intention of DFYWA to treat the working paper as a live document, to allow updating it at regular intervals, add more quantitative data as it is collected, and also use this as a baseline to understand and interpret future development directions in the subsector, both from within the communities and outside of them. The study, based mostly on primary data collection, is undertaken by several members and staff of DFYWA.