The Guhagar fishing village lies in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra state in India. It has about 450 fisher families. Earlier, the regular routine for the fisherwomen of the village centred around visiting the beach and fish landing sites early in the morning to gather and buy fish that they would later sell.

Since 25 March this year, India has been under an unprecedented nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19, the novel coronavirus disease. This has severely impacted all economic activity in the country. For fishworkers along the fish value chain this has meant a total stoppage of all work, and loss of income. “Because of COVID-19, for almost a month, all fishing activities have stopped and fishers have no income. Traditional fishers are like daily wage workers who go to the sea daily to catch fish and earn their livelihood,” said Ujwala Jaykisan Patil, a Mumbai based fisherwoman leader of the Maharashtra Machhimar Kruti Samiti.