The World Health Organization (WHO) characterized COVID-19 a pandemic on 11 March, 2020. Two weeks later, a nationwide lockdown was announced in India, to ensure consistency in the application and implementation of pandemic control measures. The lockdown adversely affected numerous fishers and fishworkers and their families. Being contact-intensive, small-scale fisheries were particularly hit hard, especially in the marine sector across India, as is evident from the stories carried in this newsletter. ICSF Trust undertook relief work among marginalized marine and inland small-scale fishing communities in the states of West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Maharashtra. ICSF worked through credible civil society organizations (CSOs) mainly in the form of providing sanitary masks, provisions for cooking and cash assistance in a targeted manner. These efforts followed a groundup approach whereby each CSO applied its own criteria to identify beneficiaries in consultation with local communities. This newsletter provides vignettes of ICSF’s relief work, how the beneficiaries in each state were identified and what form of assistance was offered. The relief work also brought to light the impact of Cyclone Amphan that befell the eastern seaboard of India from 16 – 21 May, 2020. The double whammy literally devastated these precarious communities: thatch and tin roof houses, and other assets such as craft and gear were blown away during the cyclone, exacerbating the vulnerabilities of fishing communities amidst a COVID-19 lockdown.
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