Livelihood of Fishermen in Badin District of Sindh

By Aslam Memon & Dr. Ali Muhammad Khushk

Badin District is located in the extreme southeastern area of Sindh and merges into the eastern portion of Indus Delta. This is one the poorer districts of Sindh by most every socioeconomic measures – health, education, maternal mortality and morbidity, income per capita, access to safe drinking water etc (Shah, 2007).

As a coastal district, Badin relies on fisheries as an important component of the economy. The current situation suggests that habitat protection has not been addressed, enrichment is not a priority and general indifference to the fisheries sector is pervasive. As such, it is no surprise that little has been done to check the discharge of dangerous effluents and untreated waste into water sources, which not only seriously undermines water quality but also threatens the existence of fish species.

Badin district is about 50 meters above sea level. As major areas of both the districts of Badin and Thatta are in the coastal belt of the province, fresh salt water balance in these coastal areas is badly disturbed. Vast areas of Thatta and Badin have been degraded due to the gradually progressing sea water and also because of frequent floods and tidal waves of Arabian Sea.

The communities, including fishermen which live within or on the fringes Coastal Belt mainly, consist of households engaged in fishing along with some agriculture, livestock activities. Some members of these communities are involved in trade and the construction and repair of boats and engines. Communities and households, who live further inland, are engaged mainly in agricultural or livestock activities or a combination of both. The fisher folk, known as Mallah, are one of the poorest groups in the area. Mallah community mostly live close to water bodies or lakes and their source of livelihood are fishing, raising livestock, agriculture and other informal labor when that is possible.

Coastal area of Badin is prone to intense rainfall in the monsoon season and natural calamities that typically cause widespread shallow flooding that often persists for long period because of the poor drainage. The area was affected by a cyclone in 1999, followed by an extreme rainfall in 2003. Cyclones cause higher than normal tides and storm surges that result in seawater intrusion across the coastal plain and impede drainage. The widespread and persistent flooding adversely affects the health and livelihoods of fishermen community living in and around coastal zone. It is vulnerable and risky environment in which to sustain a livelihood. The lakes in the area have also undergone drastic changes in the past 10 years as a result of the construction of the Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD) that passes directly through two of the main lakes as well as drought and cyclones (Shah, 2007).

Household’s Livelihood strategies

Three major livelihood strategies were found in fisher community shows that majority (52%) of households involved in agriculture along with fishing followed by 28% in agricultural labour with fishing and 20% dependent on only fishing. Some households of all these three groups keep some animals for self use. Respondents reported they not get any significant income from livestock.

Family Structure

Family structure depicts the type of household. 'Joint family' means iliat all members of the household, including the extended family share the same kitchen, whereas the term 'nuclear family' includes only those families where there is a husband, wife and children. Results of survey indicate that majority 97 percent of fishermen living jointly and only 3 percent live nuclear.

Educational Status

Education is always considered as an important factor which changes the behaviour of human beings in particular and living beings in general. Education plays a vital role in the development of the economy. Improving the education sector not only increases efficiency in producing goods and services, but also contributes to poverty alleviation. A market benefit of education is a higher output due to increased labour productivity. Studies on the economies of education have shown that income increases by 2.7 percent with every additional year of primary school education and by 4 percent with every additional year of secondary school education in Sindh (Nasir and Nazli, 2000). Non-market benefits include better health, increased efficiency in job searches and other personal choices. There are also social benefits due to spill-over effects. These include enhanced productivity of coworkers, awareness on birth control, alleviation of environmental stress and crime reduction (Jimenez et al., 2003).

Respondent were questioned about the level of education for each member of the household. For the purpose of comparison, the education level was categorized as adult education (age17 and above) and child education (age 5-16 years).

Educational Status of Adults

The educational status of fishermen is very worst condition majority of population of this community is uneducated. There is significant difference in literacy ratio by sex in this community. The highest level of education for a most of the males (10 percent) and female (one percent) was primary.

Educational Status of Children

Survey results indicate that majority of the children 62 percent boys and 78 percent of girls were not attending school at all. About 33 percent boys and 24 percent girls were enrolled at the primary level. Only 5 percent boys and 2 percent girls were enrolled at the middle level, implying a very high drop out rate at the secondary level.

Overall the educational status of the fisher community is very worst. Among children, more than half of the boys and more than 80 percent of girls are out of school and among adult women about 99 percent are illiterate. The Efforts are also done to identify causes of this worst condition and found factors like lack of schools, large family size, and poverty appears to be major obstacles in the attainment of even basic education.

Educational Facilities

During survey, respondents were asked about the educational services existing near the households. Results show that 92 percent households reported presence of government primary schools from which most were at walking distance and some were located 1-3 kms. Mostly the facility of Government middle schools (55 percent) were existing at distance of 4-6 kms, 17 percent at 7-9 kms and 15 percent at 1-3 kms. Majority of the respondents (68 percent) reported high schools were existing at distance of 7-9 kms and very few (4 percent) reported at 1-3 kms.

Health Services

Respondents were asked about the types of health services near by households. About 49 percent household reported the existence of BHU/RHC, while the presence of clinic was reported by 20 percent households and only 11 percent reported government hospitals. Of those who cited presence of BHU/RHC 42 percent reported a distance of 1-5 km, while 40 percent reported 6-10 km and 10 percent said that the facility was at 11-20 km. A majority of clinics were also at a distance of 1-5 km. While a majority of government hospitals were far away which was at a distance of more than 20 km.

Drinking Water Facility

Access to an improved drinking water supply is not only a basic need and precondition for a healthy life; it is also a human right. “Improved” water supply technologies include: household connection, public standpipe, borehole, protected dug well, protected spring, and rainwater collection. “Not improved” include: unprotected well, unprotected spring, vendor-provided water, bottled water, and tanker truck-provided water. Drinking water supply was seen uniformly as a priority issue - the primary sources of drinking water are the watercourses, but since this area is at the extreme tailend of the irrigation system there is often no water in the watercourses and when there is it is polluted and turbid. Majority 68% obtain water from canals and watercourses at a distance of 1-2 kms followed by hand pumps. Water from canal and watercourses is considered unsafe (smelly, salty and dirty).

Type of Toilet Facility and drainage system

Information on sanitation conditions measured by the toilet facilities inside houses and it were noted that open space was used predominantly and some households had pit latrines inside housing units. There appears to be a lack of infrastructure for consolidated management of human waste and waste water disposal. All the houses have either no sewerage system or open drains. An overwhelming majority of households dispose human waste in open fields.

Existence of Utilities

Respondents were asked about the utilities and services such as electricity, gas telephone and mobile available and using by them. Electricity, gas and telephone facilities are not available in study area but majority 78 percent of respondents reported mobile phone service was available in their area. While 57 percent reported they used mobile phone.

Income of Household (Rs)

The household income was calculated and found that the group involve in agriculture and fishing have a highest monthly household income Rs.18,768/- followed by Fishing and agricultural labour. Households dependent only fishing have monthly household income was Rs.9955/-. Per capita income was also calculated and found that household involve in only fishing have lowest per capita income.

Overall income of fisher community by different sources were analyzed and found that major portion of their income 70% comes from fishing followed by 21% from agriculture, 5% from labour and 4% from Livestock.

Monthly Food and non food Expenditure of Household

The results of analyze shows that average household expenditure was Rs.14945. Since the written records of income and expenditure were not available, the actual expenditure may be assumed to be somewhat higher than reported. Results indicate that 52% of the budget expenditure was incurred on food items followed by 11% on maintenance of motorcycle. Expenditure on health was computed to be 8%. About 8% of the budget was spent on health including doctor fees and medicines. Expenditure on clothing and shoes was computed to be 7%. Expenditure on education was 4% only. About 4% and 2% were spent on electricity and phone respectively. Miscellaneous expenditure was computed to be 12% which included pocket money of dependent household members.

The overall results indicates that a large majority live at or below subsistence level, where they are just able to meet their basic needs for food, shelter and clothing for their larger families. Hence, after meeting food consumption they are left with little to spend even on basic needs like health, utility and educational needs of the family members. The economic status of the households can thus be defined as very poor - low monthly income, low expenditures and investment on livelihood improvements and low savings.

Per Capita Calories intake

Analysis was carried out to find per capita calories intake from food and results show that households involve in Fishing and agriculture, averagely adult obtain more 2490 calories per day from food as compared in rice-households involve in fishing and labour 2380 and only in fishing 2275 calories per day.

Further analysis was done to investigate what was the composition of calories obtain by fishermen and found that a major portion of calories 60 percent was obtain from Rice followed by milk 12%. Fish meat, Ghee and cooking oil and sugar become third providing each 8 percent of calories.

Poverty Incidence by Caloric Approach

Caloric intake concept under absolute poverty will be used for assessment of poverty. Under this approach, poverty is defined in-terms of a food poverty line that reflects the minimum food expenditure needed to achieve the minimum required level of caloric intake. It was, therefore, considered essential to have an official poverty line with a standardized methodology to measure poverty in Pakistan. The Planning Commission adopted an official poverty line based on a caloric norm of 2350 calories per adult equivalence per day. On the basis of caloric norm poverty incidence was 58 percent in households involved only in fishing, 41 percent in household involved in fishing and labour and 39 percent in households involved in fishing and agriculture.

Gender Involvement in Decision Making

Households were asked about participation of males and females in family decisions. Participation in important family matters reflects control over the family resources. Only men were actively participating in decision making of each and every matter of the household while women were seen jointly active with male to some extent in important family decisions related to marriage. Females were solely responsible for taking care of livestock. Decisions related to management of HH affairs and financial matters were purely made by males while very few females participated jointly with males.

Women Rights

Majority of the (94 percent) respondents reported that women did caste vote, whoever with the weak decision making power it is possible that the decision is highly influenced by male family members. About 73 percent respondents mentioned prevalence of physical/mental abuse and violence against women. Further more 48 percent accepted that women have right to give consent during nikah/ejob-o-qabool and only 2 percent reported that the women had right to choose marriage partner. That means the choice is already made (with out asking the woman) by the time the marriage ceremony is held. In so far as the woman is informed at the time that parents and family elders decide who she is to marry, it might be considered 'consent' if she has raised no objection. Asking for permission or signature at the time of the wedding ceremony is simply a procedure and must not be confused with consent. Respondents replied negatively for other rights of women like right to practice Family Planning methods, right to go to public places, and ownership/inheritance right.

Disasters and Calamities

Respondents were asked about the major calamities (both natural and man made) in the area, how potent they became. Rains, cyclones and floods were the main calamities of the area, which occurred once or twice in a year.

About half of the households reported that rain occurred 3 to 4 times in the last 5 years, and other half said more than 4 times. While majority reported floods and cyclones were take place 1 to 2 times in last ten years. As far as manmade disaster is concerned about half of the households mentioned that floods due to LBOD comes 1-2 times and a quarter mentioned 3-4 times in the last 5 years.

Respondents were also asked that what kind of damages occurred by these disasters and found that major damage was caused to houses and agriculture by floods, rains, cyclone and floods due to LBOD. While, loss of animals/livestock was mainly due to floods (natural and due to LBOD) and cyclone, rains also spoiled the livestock but in lesser number. Respondents reported that damages of fisheries were mainly happed due to cyclone, floods in LBOD and natural floods. Most of the households reported that Cyclone was the main reason of human loses, while some also mentioned that they lost their beloved due to floods in LBOD. Some respondents also mentioned the other losses include damage of road, agri goods, boats, communication system, spreading of diseases and loss of employment.

Indigenous Disaster Coping Mechanisms

Indigenous disaster coping mechanisms were also asked from respondents. A majority of households reported that there was no mechanism in place to deal with disasters. They said that they “do nothing before disaster”, “no resources to make any arrangement before hand” and “all depends on God”. Some of the respondents reported the following local disaster coping instruments were used:

· First try to leave the village

· Help each other to save life

· Use boats, buffaloes and swim to save life Reach at high or safer place

Change in Livelihood due to LBOD Project

During survey respondents were asked that did the LBOD project bring any change (positive and negative) in their livelihood. All respondents replied 'yes' that the LBOD project brought the changes in their livelihood. A large majority (about 98 percent) of respondents felt that LBOD project brought negative changes in their livelihood, they replied the following changes:

· Agricultural loss/damage

· Damage of crops

· Loss of livestock

· Decrease fish species and fish catch

· Sea water mixed with sweet water

· Increase in diseases due to poor quality of drinking water

· Water logging and salinity increase

The situation of their livelihood before the LBOD project was also investigated. A large majority of the respondents reported the situation of their livelihood was better before LBOD project, they explained that they had getter agricultural crops, fertile lands with better yields. They were safe from floods/less fear of flood. Their livestock and houses were safe. They had more fish catch and more species and the water was also sweet. They financial position of communities was generally better and there was more employment. In general there was more greenery and trees, clean environment and less spread of diseases.