Marine fishing in India has largely come to a standstill in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak.
In Kerala, the government has banned operation of mechanised boats. But small-scale beach landing crafts are allowed to ensure fishers' sustenance and food security needs of the society. This relaxation is subject to the strict provisions that they should maintain physical distancing at sea and fish landing centres.
Controlling the highly interactive fish landing centres in these times is a daunting task. Physical distancing hardly works in a market context where auctioning of the commodity is the norm. All public health warnings will be thrown to the fishy wind that blows across such fish marketing centres.
This exerpt first appeared in the manorama online website and it is republished here with the author’s permission.