The Impact of COVID on Kerala Fish-vending Women

Johnson Jament and Caroline Osella

Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 2024, vol. 31, issue 1, 61-84

Abstract: This article discusses women’s role in Kerala’s small-scale marine fishing industry and changes that took place during COVID-19. Pandemic conditions enabled and accelerated the restructuring of Kerala’s fishing industry practices, leaving marginal groups even more marginal. Small-scale producers and sellers were edged out by larger players in a new wholesale market. Meanwhile, female vendors who utilised public transport and face-to-face sales methods found themselves locked out from new retail methods introduced during the pandemic, which made use of smartphone apps, online platforms, and private light vehicles. Underemployed workers with access to digital technology and mobility moved in to fill the lockdown retail gap. The Gulf states’ continuing squeeze on jobs and resultant migration slow-down contributed to these trends. Female fish-vending activity has also been affected by Kerala’s acceleration of bourgeois respectability norms. The state government’s modernisation and centralisation policies also led to the shrinking of women’s spaces in fish auction markets. Recent inequalities in digital and mobility access sit on top of longstanding entrenched class and status inequities and conservative gender norms, while the enduring chronic ‘wicked problem’ of Kerala’s unemployment levels demands urgent attention.

Keywords: Fishing; Kerala; female vendors; COVID-19; marginality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:indgen:v:31:y:2024:i:1:p:61-84

DOI: 10.1177/09715215231217071

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