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General
The great fight back of tsunami victims - Fishing Out Profits
Hema Vijay
Jul 2009
Jul 2009
Page 1 of 2
There was a time when the people of Pillemedu were completely dependent on the sea for their livelihood. Now they are afraid to even venture out to sea on their own. "From our huts, we could keep a watch for fish swarming near the sea surface and then set the nets accordingly. But we haven't gone back to doing that since the tsunami," says Anjamma, 35. How can they, with the painful memories of loss still hounding them? Each of the 82 families in Pillemedu has lost at least one or more members to the killer wave. "Earlier, we even slept in boats without a care. It's no longer so today," explains Anjamma.
However people here are trying to move on, having rebuilt their lives at a new settlement provided by the government. Four kilometres inland, they call it Pillemedu, after their old village. With the assistance of NGOs, like CARE India, the village folk here have managed to not only build 'pucca' (permanent) houses and roads but have also taken to more lucrative sources of livelihood.
Families in Pillemedu have traditionally caught and sold fish for a living. Men would rise early and go to the sea to lay their nets. When they returned with the catch, the women would take over. They were responsible for cleaning, drying and selling the fish in the nearby villages.
However, fishing is no longer a very profitable proposition. The catch has steadily dwindled - a consequence of over-fishing by mechanised trawlers and factors such as pollution and global warming. And then there is the new fear of the sea. After having lived through the tsunami, most people are afraid to venture alone on the high seas.
While fish-related activities remain the primary source of income in Pillemedu, the women here have tried to modernise their part of the process - ie, the cleaning and drying of fish. They have taken to processing dry fish in a big way by adopting the photovoltaic (PV) technology. And to Anjamma goes the credit for this shift.
Traditionally, the villagers here would dry fish by spreading them out on the sand. "This made the end-product gritty and unhygienic and there were not many takers for them. The PV machine has changed all that," reveals G. Moses Samuel, programme manager, Care India. The PV machine uses sunlight to generate heat and can dry up to 80 kilograms of fish within eight hours. "I saw my relatives in Pazhayar village use this machine and decided that we at Pillemedu should adopt this technology as well," says Anjamma.
But when she floated the idea to the members of her self-help group (SHG), the Kutti Andavar Women's SHG, they were skeptical. "We felt we couldn't afford the machine. Anjamma, however, had an unshakeable belief that we would eventually find a way," recalls Kanchana, who lost her husband to the tsunami.
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