Sink or Swim: The Surviving Women of Foreshore Estate

Once a thriving fishing community, the tsunami of 2004 wrecked Foreshore Estate, leaving women high and dry by the ocean

By Anushree Jonko

Greyscale is the word. Be it broken furniture parts strewn around, unpainted walls, sun-dried fish, dull steel utensils or cast nets on the dusty pavements, the entire Foreshore Estate stretch looks mostly grey and abandoned. The area’s beach might just be the dirtiest in Chennai.

Rats squabbling for fish remnants, moss on the rocks and broken bottles, only further the notion that the area is yet to recover from the substantial damage the tsunami had caused on 26th December 2004. The area right next to Marina, the most popular beach in Chennai, was as forsaken as the women of that community.

#CycloneNada #foreshoreestate pic.twitter.com/zq3d5JibQj
— Karthic Gajendran (@AryaKarthic) December 1, 2016

Peeping shyly from the cracked wooden door of her hut, Samudeshwari, a home-maker, said, “We are not allowed to fish.” The women of Foreshore Estate are expected to find alternative ways of earning a livelihood.

The preponderance of eateries run by women along the stretch is also hard to ignore. Tamini Lunch Hall is one such eatery run by a family of five women, who have faced many struggles in their lives. “I lost my husband in the tsunami and have been running this place along with my mother, sister – Rita, friend – Ezliarsi and sister-in-law, Pousiniya for 14 years”, said Kumari, the owner of the joint. Pousiniya is a cancer patient and Kumari is funding her treatment from whatever little they earn. All the women have lost their husbands to the ocean and their sons have deserted them and gone their separate ways. “Her alcoholic son comes every night and forcefully takes money from her,” said her mother Pondrus.

The despondency of the women of this community is not just visible in the ways they fight for their livelihood but also in the way they spend their time when the men are away fishing.

Posing a stark contrast to the grey stalls, women of all age groups in colourful saris were sitting in a circle and playing a game of Chopat, a gambling game popular in rural India. “We do not have any work till the men come back from fishing. We then sell those fish”, said Rajalakshmi, a newlywed. Groups like these can be seen nearly every 50 metres.

Meenakshi, 24, reminisces about her father. “I used to wait for him at the beach when he went fishing but after losing the breadwinner of our family, I had to quit school and work as domestic help. I am unmarried and have nothing to look forward to.”

The proximity to the ocean only seems to underline how far away they are from the possibility of fishing. Just like Foreshore Estate which is completely neglected by the main hub of the city, the women of this community are forgotten and fend for themselves alone in the absence of men.