“My mother used to collect seaweed from the sea. As a child, I naturally followed her to sea and ever since then, seaweed farming is what I do,” says R. Suganthi, 45, who trains a self-help group on seaweed culture. She makes a living off of the sea, on Rameswaram island (also known as Pamban), located in the Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu.
Seaweed, a naturally abundant resource, is available and accessible to the women on Rameswaram’s coast. While the men venture deep into the sea, the women collect seaweed closer to shorelines, a primary source of income for themselves. Many of these women who are now in their fifties, began farming seaweed when they were teenagers.
They dive underwater to harvest the seaweed and sell them in two forms – dried seaweed which fetches them Rs.110-115 per kilogram, and fresh seaweed which sells for a lesser price at Rs. 60 per kilogram.
“Our day starts early; we walk three kilometres towards the sea till Olaikuda on Palk Bay. We dive and look for naturally available seaweed. We collect anywhere between three to five kilograms of kanji pasi (Gracilaria edulis), marikolunthu pasi (Gelidiella, a genus of red algae) each day,” says Usha Muniswamy, another seaweed farmer. Palk Bay is a shallow water body between the southeast coast of India and Sri Lanka.
Like hundreds of saree-clad women before them, with a simple plastic sack tied around their waist and basic diving masks, women from the coastal villages in Ramanathapuram still rely on the risky business of seaweed farming for their income.
But what makes seaweed farming a risky profession?
Dhanalakshmi S., a seaweed collector from Mangadu explains, “The water sometimes gets stuck in our diving masks while we are underwater. We also have to walk on sharp underwater rocks. Any slip can be lethal. We do not even have a clinic in our village. The closest hospital is eight kilometres across Pamban bridge from our house.”
The divers also have to prove their identity to the Indian Coast Guard when questioned. They add that they are also scared of the Sri Lankan navy, due to the long-prevailing tensions regarding maritime borders, between the two countries. “The (International Maritime) Boundary with Sri Lanka is an hour away on our boats. Earlier, only the fishermen used to get identity cards. After much protests since 2012, some of the fisherwomen, including seaweed workers, finally received biometric cards last year. We can now prove our identities to the security agencies,” says Lakshmi Murthy, a former seaweed collector, who now runs a self-help group on the island.
The seaweed harvested this way is exported and extracted for its additives, rather than as a sea vegetable to be consumed whole. Currently, seaweed is used in making human food, cosmetics, fertilisers, and to extract gums and chemicals with both industrial and medical use. Ironically, the women who collect the seaweed from the ocean, do not consume any of these products made from seaweed.
By 2025, India hopes to expand seaweed output to at least one million tons annually. The investment is a part of the Blue Revolution scheme under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampadhana Yojayana.
However, more and more women in Ramanathapuram district are discouraging their daughters from taking up seaweed farming after them, as the profession becomes increasingly difficult with different environmental and social pressures.
Reduced sea days
Seaweed farming at Rameswaram is practised according to the lunar cycle. The women work for six days starting from a full moon day, followed by a nine-day break. The work then resumes for six days more when it’s a new moon, followed by a nine-day break again, and so on. Murthy explains that the number of days they collect seaweed in a 30-day cycle has also been reduced by six days now. “Earlier we would take a six-day break, instead of nine.” The three extra days are now given so the seaweed can grow back healthier.
The number of annual working days at sea have also been impacted due increased cyclones on the east coast. Weather experts state that more cyclones impacted the Tamil Nadu coast between 2002 and 2021 than between 1982 and 2001. Cyclones are making landfall in Tamil Nadu more frequently, which also impacts the seaweed farmers.
In addition to this, an annual fishing ban of two months, a lean period during the southern monsoons, and increased irregularities in the weather leave the women with only seven months of reliable working conditions at sea per year.
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