Social discrimination, by caste, class and gender are practices of inequality that charachterise various small-scale fisher and local community institutions that govern coastal and marine commons across India. Financial and programmatic support to diverse community institutions in coastal-marine regions influence gender relations, which in turn reshapes relations with these commons.
This paper focuses on two important marine biodiversity-rich areas of southern India, that have seen successive tranches and terms of financial support for marine fisher communities, with goals of community development or biodiversity conservation. The Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar bear different histories of coastal-marine commons governance that predate concerns around ‘biodiversity conservation’ or ‘community development’, mostly through specialised community institutions, such as the oor panchayat, which are mostly discussed for their role in fisheries management (Bavinck, 2017). Historically, women from coastal communities have found little or no space in fisher institutions (Sundar, 2010) including these oor panchayat systems. The paper examines shifts or impacts in the gendered governance of these coastal areas, with the coming in of contemporary financial support in these regions. It asks, in what ways does structured support by the state, private trusts, research organisations and philanthropic effort shift the gendered governance of coastal-marine commons.
It also examines the role of non-state sources of support through civil society organisations and local industries, specifically fellowships for women or direct payments for services. The paper is attentive to 3 lines of analysis: a) the ways in which external actors ‘give’ and the impacts of such giving on practices related to local use and understanding of the commons, b) the institutional structures that have resulted from such forms of giving, and c) what is taken from such re-shaped commons and by whom?
The paper relies on diverse sources of secondary literature, archival documents, project reports of management authorities, NGOs as well as an analysis of grey literature. It also draws from interviews with key actors in the region, as well as reflexive analyses from the authors’ own personal practice and field engagement.
