Poverty Pang in Marine Fishing Communities in the State Of A.P.: A Case Study at Vodarevu Marine Fishing Community in Prakasam District

Abstract

Andhra Pradesh State is having significant and most productive agricultural land in the country, a long coastline with aquaculture potential, significant mining and offshore oil and gas reserves, moderate levels of human development, significant entrepreneurial groups, moderately well-developed road and rail infrastructure, growing concentration of industrial activity, considerable potential for renewable energy development, and a large and prosperous Diaspora. The traditional coastal communities of Andhra Pradesh are facing pressure from the land and the depletion of the ocean ecosystem. In particular, the coastal communities at Prakasam district are over burdened with problems of poverty, unfair competition from trawlers, lack of security, unpredictable natural disasters, scarcity of drinking water, industrial pollution and so on. Vodarevu (15.8136° N, 80.3547° E) marine fishing community is one of the suffering communities with poverty and pollution pangs in Andhra Pradesh situated at 7 kms away from Chirala town. In the Vodarevu, majority of the people belong to the Vada Balija caste, but of course, this community includes several small portion of heterogeneous mixture of people from other castes like Pattapu, pallikarulu and matyakarulu. It is a very rare case in Prakasam district to observe the co-existence of marine fishing castes for livelihoods. This kind of collective effort and mutual understandings of their traditional systems are protecting them from fall. It should also be note that this community consist of both fishing and non-fishing groups together that cooperate and coordinate with each other in daily life, while the livelihood of fisheries is threatened in many ways. Social policy objective Fish is a highly perishable food, requiring proper handling and processing, if it is to be utilized in a cost-effective and efficient way for the benefit of those who rely on it for nutrition or income. FAO 2004 [2] estimates that up to 20 mn tonnes of fish are wasted by being discarded at sea immediately after being Abstract Marine fishing communities in recently separated state of Andhra Pradesh are facing a severe poverty problem. Extended fish ban and lean period as well as governmental untimely assistance are the main causes of present poverty problem in the marine fishing. The State as well as Central Government was not in a position to release the promised funds to the marine fishing communities in the state of Andhra Pradesh especially to the Prakasam District. Year by year downfall of fisheries is recorded in the study area due to the indiscriminate and unstructured fishing practices at the coast. The poverty alleviation programmes of both the GOs & NGOs are either nominal or temporary or non-functional due to the short sightedness, growing disparities among the fishing communities based on the gears that were used, ultimately leading to the depletion of fish by overfishing in the study area. Discrimination in budget allocation to the vulnerable as well as disaster proven regions of the country is one of the major problems in India. Poverty is prevailing in the Vodarevu village, directly or indirectly leading to many other problems like pollution, improper sanitation, crime rate, unemployment, depression and debt. The lived experience of marine fishing village i.e. Vodarevu community at Prakasam district in Andhra Pradesh reveals that the politically driven welfare policies of Governments are working towards the country's economic growth rather than to safeguard the fishermen communities to alleviate poverty pang.