This is excerpt from the chapter ‘Fish on Footpath’ from the book Vulnerable Communities in Neoliberal India: Perspectives from a Feminist Ethnographic Approach edited by Deepanshu Mohan, Sakshi Chindaliya and Ashika Thomas. The book provides an ethnographic analysis of modern neoliberal India, focusing on the daily experiences and livelihoods of marginalised, insecure, informal communities living in urban and peri-urban areas throughout the country.
The Hanji people, a traditional fishing community in Jammu and Kashmir, are facing near extinction of their ancestral fishing practices that have endured for centuries. Research findings reveal a decline in Hanji incomes due to unregulated development, unplanned urbanisation, and unregulated tourism, which has poisoned the region’s famous water bodies, destroying both fish populations and Hanji livelihoods.
Despite increasing struggles, Hanji women continue to endure and persist in traditional fishing. However, discriminatory policies and practices have put immense pressure on Hanji culture amidst rapid urbanisation, as Hanji women resist the erosion of their identity and way of life. Though facing existential challenges, the Hanji are clinging to their culture and communal traditions.
The community is facing threats to its existence on multiple levels whereas the lack of market spaces has choked the community’s income drastically, and urbanisation has added to it. The Hanji population living around the Dal Lake in Kashmir has been greatly impacted by the urbanisation surrounding Dal Lake, which has resulted in a considerable alteration of their traditional livelihoods and habits.
The lake’s water quality has been seriously harmed by the inflow of raw sewage from numerous sources, including houseboats and city sewers (Khan, 2021). According to a news report by Aljazeera, in a study conducted by the University of Kashmir in 2016, it was noticed that only 20 per cent of the lake’s water is relatively clean, while 32 per cent was severely degraded.
Edited by Deepanshu Mohan, Sakshi Chindaliya, Ashika Thomas
Vulnerable Communities in Neoliberal India Perspectives from a Feminist Ethnographic Approach
Routledge, 2025
Many newspaper reports and academic articles have been published that blame the lake’s inhabitants for the degraded water quality. However, the same newspaper report mentions an RTI filed by a houseboat owner, Tariq Ahmad, about the sewage going into the Dal. In response to the RTI, it was revealed that about 44 million litres, or 11 million gallons, of sewage from the city were reportedly dumped into the lake daily, according to authorities in 2017.
They added that houseboats contributed almost a million litres (260,000 gallons) of sewage. The sewage treatment plants (STPs) constructed along the Dal have not had the desired effect. According to a newspaper report published in Kashmir Observer, STPs are heavily over-utilized and under-maintained, and their effluent is far below the required criteria as outlined in the Central Pollution Control Board guidelines, according to a committee of experts (CoE) that the Jammu and Kashmir High Court established last year.
The unchecked sewage flow severely impacted the Dal Lake’s flora and fauna, so the Jammu and Kashmir government built STPs around the lake in 2000 to prevent further degradation. At the moment, Lake Conservation and Management Authority (LCMA) is in charge of three STPs: Lamb, which is 4.5 MLD; Habak, which is 3.5 MLD; and Hazratbal, which is 7.5 MLD. Approximately 70 per cent of the sewage generated in Srinagar City is said to end up in the lake. Three STPs are operating under LCMA’s supervision. In its most recent report, the CoE stated that these are severely under-maintained and overused.
Many community members attribute this pollution to the increasing urbanisation and believe that the fish population has declined, affecting trade. One of the respondents added, The fish in the Dal are small. Because of the sewage, the fish have declined. This sewage affects the eggs of the fish. Azmat added,
The Dal had many fish. However, this sewage is increasingly destroying them. All the garbage goes into the dal. Sewage also goes into the dal. We used to drink this water, but today, you cannot even wash your face with it.
Many members said that earlier, they used to catch 4–5 kg of fish, but now it has been reduced to 1–2 kg.
Hanji women sell fish on a footpath. Photo: Author provided
The community members added that because of the decline in the fish count, they have to buy fish from the farms located in other districts and import from outside the state, because of which the profits have drastically declined. The customers usually do not want to pay the asked price for the farm-grown fish, and because there is no adequate facility to store the fish, the fisherfolk usually sell them for low to no profits. On being asked why they sell fish at such low rates, one of the respondents said, If we do not even sell this fish, what will we eat? Totta Massa, who sells fish on the foreshore road along with her daughter, added:
We sell a certain quality of fish at a certain price and the customer tells us that we are fleecing them. However, what can we do? We are paying a lot of money to buy it. Now we have farm fishes. Local or non-local. However, nobody wants to buy them. They say they do not want to buy them because they have been transported in ice boxes. They have been preserved artificially. Our customers force us to buy the expensive variety of fish, and then we are bound to ask for 600 rupees per kg. Because we are buying it at 500 rupees, we also must factor in other expenses. Transport and all. And then the customers think we are fleecing them; sometimes they threaten us with police action.
Despite all this, they keep selling the fish.
The fishing community faces unanticipated challenges due to the Srinagar Smart City initiative, which aims to modernise infrastructure along the Dal Lake. The reconstruction of the Foreshore road along the Dal Lake has hampered fishermen’s access to their customary fishing locations.
Photo: Author provided
Moreover, the situation has worsened because they are not allowed to sit on the road where they usually used to sit. The community members believe this move has had severe economic effects on the community. Javed Ahmad, a fisherman who sells fish on the foreshore road, said, From the day this smart city project has started, the trade has declined a lot. It is like unemployment. When asked why he felt so, he added,
This trade is not the same as earlier. The smart city project has ruined this trade. We wander from here and there. Since this smart city project started, the trade has declined a lot. It is like unemployment. Everyone says it is a good trade, but it is not. If we buy fish for 300–400, the customer pays only 200–250. We cannot even tell him anything. That is why we are running into losses. This project increased our problems. Since the road has been closed, we are at a loss; we depend a lot on this road (people usually take this road to buy fish). We are also not allowed to sit here.
Another respondent added,
They (authorities) do not let us sit on the footpath. We had asked them to make a small platform here, but they did not allow that. I had made a platform myself, but they demolished it. We had told them to provide us with a space for the markets. They have many parks. Give one to us. We will set up our shops there. If the municipality comes, they take all our stuff. I have kept my shikara here; I put all my stuff in that and left. They even take tubs with fish in it. Many people used to sell fish on the other side, but they had to shift after they made the pathway along the road. Our trade is based on water; we had asked them to at least make a stairwell along the road so that we may get some water, but they did not.