In the monsoon of 2022, the office of the Trombay Fishers Cooperative Society witnessed exceptional footfalls of women fishers wanting to apply for the Maha and Kyar cyclone aid. More than two years earlier, in late 2019, two cyclones - Maha and Kyar had hit the shores of the Western Coast of India causing immense loss to the fisher community. Fishers could not catch fish, fish vendors couldn't sell fish, boats were damaged and business was lost in the peak fishing season of the year. Ten months after the disaster, the State Government put out a Government Resolution (GR) to provide relief from the cyclones.
This Government Resolution of 2020 declares aid for the fishers against the damage caused by Maha and Kyar cyclone.
Cyclone aid took the form of a cash transfer to boat owners (who are mostly men) for the damage to their boats. But, fish vendors (who are mostly women) were given conditional cash transfers to buy ice boxes on the provision of receipts. Hearing this, fisherwomen raised their eyebrows when they visited the society to crosscheck the news. Each day, women would arrive at the societies with different queries.
“From where should I buy the shitpeti (Iceboxes)”,
“The shopkeeper didn't give me the bill”,
“Do I have to submit the bill?”
“What if I don't need iceboxes?”
This is when we became stuck on the mystery of “Why iceboxes for women?” When we asked the fisherwomen this question, their responses varied:
“What iceboxes? I don't even know about it!”,
“What will I do with the iceboxes, I need money for the damages to my livelihood”,
“I am not even a member of the fisher society, how will I get the icebox”.
One woman fisher, irritated with the procedures, thought for a bit and retorted,
“I think they have gone crazy!”
Since the fisherwomen had no idea about why they were given iceboxes, we decided to go to the Fisher Cooperative Society of Trombay. Fishers’ cooperative societies work as intermediary organisations between the fisher community and the fisheries department. The members of these societies often serve as representatives on government-appointed committees that make decisions on different policies and programs. They can play an active role in the implementation and shaping of government initiatives from within their communities. This form of organisation of fishers has earned significant value as the lowest tier of fisheries-related governance in the community over time.
Swamped with application forms and numerous queries coming from women, Society staff readily shared their side of the story. “The government keeps changing the criteria," the chairman sighed.
"First, they said only licensed women would receive aid, then they extended it to society members when we pressured them to extend this eligibility. We had to provide guarantee letters for all the women-fish vendors, stating they are members of our cooperative society. Some women didn't believe us when we informed them about the compensation, and later they came back complaining that they didn't receive the money. With limited manpower, we are under pressure from both the community and the department. How are we supposed to handle all of this together?"
Members of the fishing society didn't seem curious about the different treatment meted out to men and women fishers even though they supposedly represented both. A board member of this cooperative society said, “Women didn't really face any loss. They are given iceboxes just for the sake of giving something. And maybe because nobody knows whether these women are actually selling fish, iceboxes were prescribed to ensure that the money is utilised for the right purpose”
Further questions seeking to untangle the icebox mystery led to board members shrugging and saying, “Only the fisheries department can tell you that”. The cooperative fishing society was not just unaware of the logic behind fisherwomen’s aid but also seemed unaware of how women fishers in their Society were distraught at how the cyclones submerged their business for 15 days straight.
The Cooperative society had directed us to the fisheries department. Trombay Koliwada falls within the Mumbai fishing district, one of seven district offices that are headed by the Fisheries Commissioner. So we sought answers to the icebox mystery at the Mumbai Suburban Fisheries Department office at Bandra. At the entry itself while struggling to identify which of the four different lifts we should take and getting yelled at by two different liftmen for wasting their time, our confusion of ‘where’ is government had begun.
With mid-level officers of the fisheries department who are responsible for the execution of Government resolutions, schemes, and programs handed down to them from the regional office, we embarked on what initially seemed like a straightforward question – Why were iceboxes distributed to fisherwomen as government aid? The 5 mid-level government officers we talked to took a moment to grasp the direction and import of our question. They shared how in 2019 when the Covid-19 lockdown, and the two cyclones Maha and Kyar had broken the life and livelihoods of fishers, there were strong demands from fishing communities, activists, and cooperative societies for relief.
The government was under tremendous pressure to take some action during such difficult times. This was why the Fisheries Department officials came to the empty office during the lockdown and frantically drafted the Government Resolution (GR) issuing Maha and Kyar cyclone aid. They talked about needing to give fisherwomen too some relief but none of them was able to clarify why relief took the form of iceboxes.
This is a govt resolution from 2008 that also declares special aid package for the fishers against the fish scarcity.
Closer scrutiny of the trail of GRs revealed that this GR had drawn from an earlier government resolution for providing aid to fish workers drafted in 2008. The categories of fish workers and aid distributed in the 2008 GR exactly matched that given in the GR providing relief for Maha and Kyar cyclones. Perhaps this is also where the idea of distributing Ice boxes to the fish vendors came from?
As for the questions of why only women were asked to produce bills for the utilization of cyclone aid, unlike the men, they officials said, “The boat owners are registered with us when we give them boat licenses. We do not have any such record of fisherwomen with us. We do not even know how many fisherwomen there are in our jurisdiction. They are registered with the BMC as market vendors or street vendors. But many of them don’t have a license, like door-to-door vendors or footpath vendors. And even if they produce their vending license, how do we know if the women will use the money given as cyclone aid for their business only?”
It was striking to see that the fisherwomen who are the face of the fishing economy are not trusted with the aid money and are sought to be disciplined by forcing them to not only buy iceboxes but to also provide proof of such purchase. From our fieldwork with women fishers, we know that not all fisherwomen sell fish, many of them also catch or forage fish themselves. But how do they prove their existence without owning an asset or property that can be registered or insured, like a boat? And how would the government know the heterogeneous nature of fisherwomen's occupation when the Fisheries Department doesn't even have fisherwomen registered with them?
And because the Fisheries Department doesn’t have any mechanism to recognize women fishers, and has little knowledge about the diversity of work within this informal sector, all the fisherwomen are stuffed in one category of “small fish vendors” in the GR. The ice-box then seems to be the convenient one-size-fits-all solution for this homogenized category of “small fish vendors” without considering the variety of artisanal fishing done by these women.
Throughout our investigation, the questions relating to untangling the mystery of iceboxes and the logic of the aid criteria were met with a similar tone of response, “Only Government can tell you that, we do as we are ordered from above”.
While trying to understand the Maha and Kyar cyclone aid government resolution, the fisherwomen pointed to the cooperative society as having the answer, the cooperative society pointed towards the fisheries department as knowing the answer. But when the department also pointed somewhere unknown in the air, we realized that searching for “the government” is akin to searching for god.
The fisheries department, who are responsible for providing disaster relief to affected fishers, failed to answer the seemingly simple question of “Why Iceboxes”? This quest only exposed the deep concerns regarding the implementation and making of climate disaster policy that's inclusive and relevant to people. This investigation has shed light on the fact that women have yet to attain the designation of 'fishers' in official logic. The government, it seems, is yet to realize its gender bias, and numerous queries about disparate treatments of men and women fishers, are yet to catch attention. Three years after the disaster of Maha and Kyar struck, the distribution of aid, correcting the wrong transfers, and follow-up nivedans and notices with regard to the collection of icebox bills from women is still on.
Meanwhile, the mystery of Iceboxes remains unsolved.
