Picture the sea before dawn. An endless expanse of dark blue water. Fishers venturing into its depths, braving uncertainty, strong currents, and the vast unknown, in search of a catch. Now, pause and ask yourself: who do you see? Chances are, a man or a group of men.
Why, when we think of fishers at sea, do we almost instinctively picture men? Do women not venture into the sea? If they do, where in Tamil Nadu can they be found? And if they do not, what keeps them from crossing that invisible boundary? These questions became the starting point and ultimately the very spine of a DW Tamil documentary film directed by Madhan Kumar, titled ‘Daughters of the Sea’.
Screened at the Art and Photography Exhibition held at Lalit Kala Akademi on June 11 by Kondal, Arts from the Sea, for exploring gendered labour in fishing, the overlooked pressures of poverty on women’s bodies, and the social barriers that seem to alienate fisherwomen, the documentary triggered often overlooked conversations.
The films opens in Chinnapalam, a fishing village near Dhanushkodi, where women fish in groups, pull nets with their male counterparts, are seaweed divers, fish marketers, and sellers. When the annual fishing ban is imposed to allow marine life to replenish, many women turn to NGO-led initiatives that train and organise them to produce seafood pickles, providing a vital source of income during the lean season. “While women have long been involved in fishing, starting from cleaning, to marketing and selling, their involvement is not reported as much, let alone women venturing into the sea,” Madhan said while discussing the film at the screening.
While public conversations about women’s work often focus on empowerment and representation, the women at the heart of this film confront a more immediate challenge: economic survival. Their labour, they admit, is a response to the material realities of poverty, uncertainty, and the responsibility of sustaining their households. Despite the risks it carries, fishing remains the most viable source of income, as daily wage work often falls short of meeting basic needs. “The fishing community there, especially the fishermen, are affected by alcohol abuse. So women in most families are forced to become the breadwinners. What I learnt was that their journey into the sea began out of necessity, fueled by their fearlessness — a trait that the community seems to possess,” Madhan commented.
So they have been venturing out, five or six at a time, aboard narrow, non-motorised boats. It seems as though sisterhood rows these boats forward, sisterhood faces the uncertainties of the sea together, and ensures the day’s earnings are shared equally among those who laboured for them.
Yet their resilience exists alongside stark inequalities. The women speak of barriers that continue to shape their realities. They have limited access to capital, equipment, and social support. “We need to understand that there is a need for an investment in fishing. For example, to just buy a motorised boat itself is difficult for these women because of structural economic issues and social divide,” the director noted.
Chinnapalam women talk of gendered inequalities in pay, too. For instance, pulling in a fishing net requires the collective strength of 20 to 30 people, with ropes tied around their waists. Together they haul against the sea’s pressure. Sathya, a young fisherwoman and a mother of two, explains that the labour doubles down on women’s bodies for they might be pulling the net postpartum or even during menstruation, and yet their hard work’s value is not equally compensated for.
But why is Chinnapalam village an exception? Why do so few women venture into the sea elsewhere along the coastline? The answers may lie in long-held beliefs that cast women as unsuited for physically demanding labour, relegating them instead to invisible and unpaid roles within the fishing economy. Bhagath Singh, a researcher specialising in fisheries governance, even points to taboos surrounding menstruation and notions of purity in the film.
Yet the women of Chinnapalam persist. Their presence at sea continues to be a collective act of survival, tugging at the hope for a better tomorrow.
The documentary is available on DW Tamil’s YouTube channel