Home Women in Fisheries Kamalaveni in Cuddalore Fishing Harbour (Credit: Nicolas Bautès)

Kamalaveni in Cuddalore Fishing Harbour (Credit: Nicolas Bautès)

In the world of fish work of Kamalaveni, men are supposed to catch the fish while women sell them. Not many realise how central women’s work is in sustaining this economy. The Cuddalore Fishing Harbour, however, is mostly a man’s terrain. For a woman to navigate it takes a bit more. Still, women remain central to its working as they assume roles of sellers, auctioneers, and credit suppliers. It takes supreme confidence and courage to perform a woman’s job, every day in the harbour, trying to arbitrate and participate in the transactions involving fishers, traders and brokers. Kamalaveni navigates this space with ease, with a commanding presence in the fishing harbour of Cuddalore old town.

Ethnographic documentation, Bhagat Singh, N. Bautès

Read more