A detailed survey to understand and document the forms of discrimination faced by the Christian Mukkuvar indigenous community in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, while accessing the government’s response and relief measures in the wake of the pandemic.
Context and intervention:
The term Mukkuvar refers to the community of marine fisher people professing Catholic religion living in Kanyakumari (Tamil Nadu) and Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) districts in southern India. They were one of the earliest communities to get converted to Catholicism by the Portuguese in the 16th century. The community is socially and economically backward and has been categorized as a Most Backward Community (MBC) by the Government of India. At present, the total number of Mukkuvar people living in the coast of Kanyakumari in 44 villages is 148,539, living as 37,211 families. The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdown hit the Mukkuvar community badly. With no community-level mechanisms in place to deal with the crisis, a community that is totally dependent on the fishing industry suffered terribly after they were prevented from engaging in their livelihood for several months on end.
The Organization for Community Development (OCD), with financial assistance from Minority Rights Group (MRG) and the South Asia Collective (SAC), conducted a survey to study in detail the plight of the already isolated Mukkuvar community during the pandemic. Between 16 June and 15 September, 200 members of the community, including 126 women, in 44 coastal villages were interviewed. A team of 5 interviewers from within the community was trained by OCD for this purpose. The survey respondents included fisherfolk, head-load fish vendors, housewives and educated youth. The information gathered was consolidated and analysed to produce a survey report (available in full here) that is being shared with government departments and other advocacy targets, for better inclusion and to formulate future project plans that address issues that facilitate the exclusion and discrimination faced by the Mukkuvar community.
Based on experiences gained during the project implementation and the insights offered by the survey report, OCD has evolved two further project plans for the immediate future.
Those interested in aiding these projects may contact OCD at: Email | Facebook | Website
OCD’s full survey report is available here.
