Enabling Mukkuvars to address COVID-19, Tamilnadu State, India

16 June 2020 Hits: 1209

Enabling 308 Most Vulnerable Families of the Indigenous ‘Mukkuvar’ Marine Fisher Folk Community to Encounter Impacts of the COVID -19 Pandemic in Kanykakumari District, Tamilnadu State, India

Background

The indigenous Mukkuvar marine fisherfolk community of Kanyakumari district is in urgent need of support in the form of basic necessities to sustain themselves during the present lockdown on movement, loss of livelihoods and lack of transport, along with assistance to address, mitigate and halt the spread of COVID-19 in the community.

Some specific needs and problems being face by the community are as follows:

The whole Mukkuvar indigenous marine fisherfolk community is facing temporary loss of livelihood – fishermen, women head load fish vendors, traders, etc.
Being a community which largely carries out a hand-to-mouth existence with no financial reserves, the present restrictions have placed them in a precarious position in which they lack the basic necessities of food and healthcare.
Vulnerable groups such as women, the elderly and very young children suffer greatly as their special needs cannot be met during this period.
The community lacks the financial resources to purchase the sanitary materials such as facemasks, sanitizers and household disinfectants to combat the spread of infection.
Being largely uneducated, the community lacks awareness about the Corona virus, its transmission and the reasons behind precautions to be undertaken.
As large families live in small houses in crowded conditions, they are unable to follow general precautions such as distancing and isolation of persons with any suspicious symptoms. The potential for the disease to spread in the community is therefore very high. They need guidance to learn and practice precautionary measures that have been modified to their reality.

Project Objective

To enable the Mukkuvar indigenous community of Kanyakumari district to effectively manage their lives during the present COVID-19 pandemic; to help them re-establish their livelihoods after the pandemic threat is resolved; and to assist them to enhance community level resilience to similar threats in future.