Well-being and mobility of female-heads of households in a fishing village in South India

Abstract

This paper focuses on how Female Heads of Households (FHHs) in a village in Cuddalore District, in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, have tried to achieve their various well-being targets and overcome their vulnerabilities through engaging in fish trading and auctioning that in turn involves moving within and outside their village. The study is based on a three-week fieldwork undertaken in April and May 2017, including multiple methods, such as observations, village walks, informal discussions, focus group discussions, and in-depth interviews. We address how FHHs’ well-being intersects with old vulnerabilities that are an inherent part of their fishing culture (caste, class and gender) and new vulnerabilities created due to precarities related to mechanized fishing, modernization and post-tsunami development. We found that the complex situation of vulnerability and precarity in the fishing sector have affected the material, relational, and subjective well-being of FHHs differently, benefitting some female auctioneers but not the majority of fish vendors. In particular, the mobility of younger FHHs was restricted due to familial and social expectations.

Keywords:

• Female heads of households (FHHs)
• fish vendors
• mobility
• vulnerability
• well-being

Acknowledgements

This work is part of the project ‘Migration and collectives/networks as pathways out of poverty. Gendered vulnerabilities and capabilities of fishing communities in Asia’ funded by the Research Council of Norway, headed by Professor Ragnhild Lund, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, in partnership with researchers at the Asian Institute of Technology (Thailand), the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (Sri Lanka), the University of East Anglia (UK), the Cambodian Institute for Research and Rural Development and Fisheries Management Resource Centre (FishMarc) (India). Copy-editing assistance was provided by Ms. Catriona Turner and Valerie Appleby, and FishMarc provided practical help in the field. Thanks to all the village women and men who took the time to speak with us and share their stories.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Fazeeha Azmi

Fazeeha Azmi is a senior lecturer attached to the Department of Geography, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Her research interests include post war youth, poverty and livelihood changes, women and migration, internal displacement and post war development in Sri Lanka. She has published journal articles and book chapters on gender, migration, youth and forced displacement in Sri Lanka.

Ragnhild Lund

Ragnhild Lund is professor of Geography/Development Studies at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, since 1994. Her research interests are theories of development and geography, gender and development, development induced displacement, post-crisis recovery, transnational feminism and women’s activism. She has extensively published scientific articles on gender, youth, activism, forced migration, mobility, livelihoods, orphan hood/HIV/AIDS, and post-war recovery.

Nitya Rao

Nitya Rao is Professor, Gender and Development at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom. She has been a researcher, teacher and field-level practitioner for over thirty years. Her research interests include a gender analysis of agrarian relations, livelihoods and migration, educational choices and social mobility, intra-household relations and women’s empowerment.

R. Manimohan

R. Manimohan is working as Postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Economics and Rural Development, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, India. His research interests include the political economy of natural resource management and policy, particularly focusing on land, water and fisheries.