Class Gains in Fisheries Management in India: Reflections from Two States

The debate on common property resource centres on issues of a particular strategy for managing it in order to cater to the growing demand for communities that depend on it and the economy at large that benefits from the use of natural resources. There is no dearth of literature on ways through which powerful special interest groups such as the middle class, have marginalised the local community depending on the resource. Based on the working of the fishing cooperatives in the large reservoir project of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, this paper looks into the process of understanding the engagements of middle class with the ruling class and its implication in terms of income and inequality of fishers. It explores how the pursuit for maximizing revenue by the State has managed to regressively replace the present prototype of fish federation and fish cooperatives in managing the resource by that of federation, contractor and cooperatives. This paper sheds light on the need for policy and institutions for providing sustainable livelihood opportunities to the fisher folks of reservoir fishing. In doing so, it draws attention to Fishing Cooperative’s emphasis on monitoring fishing activity and the water body.