Again several NGOs were giving boats. So we decided to wait to see if there is a need after everyone else has given boats. In several villages people have got more boats than needed!  Some people have got 2-3 boats from different donors.  Over-populating the coast with boats also has its problems.  In a few areas people complained that in the rush to give boats, the boat manufacturers did not wait for the boats to dry on the mould – they would remove it within a day instead of waiting for 2-3 days.  This had made many boats very weak.  The government has also offered a subsidy for the boats (but which most people are unwilling to take as there are so many NGOs offering them free boats).  As always, we decided to keep away from the rush – to wait to see if there are specific needs and people who are left out – after everyone else has given the boats and gone.  We found that the catamarams were not being replaced by most NGOs – and so the catamaram support from Scope was a very useful contribution.   I don’t think there will be a lot of need for boats and catamarams (we may in fact have the problems of excesses). But there may still be some small needs in a few hamlets here and there - we must be prepared to identify and support these needs.

Other losses and needs: As we have seen again and again in our development work over the years, the voices of the weakest and the poorest is often submerged by the loud chattering of the more well-to-do.  Walk into a village with a lot of money and you are surrounded by loud male voices demanding nets and boats and engines.  In every panchayat meeting this is the top agenda item.  These are the dominant voices in the village - often many outsiders (including many NGOs) end up thinking these are the only voices in the village!

But in each village there are also other voices – weaker voices that cannot be heard if you are not consciously searching for them.  But if you make the attempt to search out these voices, you will find them. An old widow here, a crippled man there, women workers, people living on the margins.  There are people who were fish-sellers – mostly women – who had fish baskets to take the fish to the market.  They have lost their baskets and livelihood.  There was an old woman who was running a small tiffin shop which has been destroyed.  There are people who fish not in the sea but in the backwaters – they carried their nets and fish in cycles to the backwaters. There are a lot of fish workers who worked in other people’s boats and are without a livelihood.  Many of these live in the fishing villages themselves.  Their demands are not as clear as “Boats and Nets”. Each one has a unique problem – it takes effort to identify how each one can be helped.  In the great rush to help, these are the people who are forgotten.  We don’t want to make this mistake.