Tackling alcoholism and domestic violence in fisheries - a new opportunity to improve wellbeing for the most vulnerable people in global fisheries

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) principle of ‘Leaving no one behind’ focusses global attention on the poorest and most vulnerable people. As different sectors grapple to engage meaningfully with this principle, we posit that greater consideration of social problems in fishing-dependent communities, such as alcoholism and domestic violence, presents an opportunity for fisheries governors to contribute to the SDGs mandate. We further argue that governing marine resources in ignorance of these problems can risk harming some of the most vulnerable people in fisheries. Using subjective wellbeing data from women living in two small-scale fishing communities in India and Sri Lanka, we demonstrate the prevalence and impact of alcoholism and domestic violence in fishing households. We further highlight how policies which restrict access to marine resources can undermine important coping strategies, in particular the ability of women to act as independent income-earners, exacerbating harm to already vulnerable women. A scoping review of the literature reveals that alcoholism and domestic violence are reported in certain fisheries around the world, and we theorise how this may relate to the nature of fishing life, and growing stresses regarding the future of fishing. Tackling the burdens of alcoholism and domestic violence in fisheries, where it is an issue, is an opportunity to improve wellbeing for men, women and their families. The paper concludes with tangible actions which marine resource governors could adopt to contribute to the ‘leave no one behind’ ethos

10 Member team to survey areas hit by drought: The Maharashtra state government has officially declared that 60 per cent of its villages were facing a ‘drought-like’ condition.

Drought can be devastating and unlike earthquakes or hurricanes, there is no immediate response for disaster management. At Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE), a ten-member team will go to drought-prone Beed, Latur and Osmanabad districts and take a week-long survey to understand why authorities fall short in taking planned and immediate steps. Dr Rajas Parchure, Director of GIPE, told The Indian Express that the survey was not a fact-finding one to assess the ground reality. “There has been ample evidence reported from various districts about the scarce water scenario. Migration of people living in these drought hit areas to other cities has also been recorded. What we aim to find out is why there has been a failure in planning policies and identify the loopholes,” said Parchure. The state government has officially declared that 60 per cent of its villages were facing a ‘drought-like’ condition. Drought comes in several degrees and hence at times it may not qualify to be termed as a disaster. The research team’s plan is to study the norms and check what should be the proportion or severity of drought to term it as a disaster and what kind of response should be anticipated. Researchers to study Solapur model that tackled water crisis Solapur, a chronically drought hit district was serviced with just 18 tankers this year when the monsoon in 2015-16 was just 186 mm. In 2012-13 the district authorities had to send 673 tankers when the rainfall was 278 mm while in 2013-14 when the recorded rainfall was 490 mm, at least 212 water tankers were deployed. However, a five point programme by the District Collector Tukaram Mundhe has helped alleviate the water crisis in Solapur and according to Parchure, the team will be assessing the work at the ground level. According to Mundhe, thanks to creating a systematic inventory of water sources – which were many times not on record, repairing and recharging maximum possible structures and other measures has helped bring down the supply of water tankers to just 18 villages out of 11,444 in Solapur district