Hari Prasad Badi has been fishing for fifty years

We visit a Badi family that lives some miles out of Tulsipor and has participated in a BASE project to supply Badi families with pigs. Their main source of income is fishing, an occupation that is associated with the Badi like prostitution and drum-making. I hope to learn more from this visit and also enjoy the river views. Also, it’s an excuse to take some photos!

The fishing is done by Hari Prasad Badi while his sister-in-law, Sundari Badi, works the garden. Three Badi families live together and they moved here 25 years ago from the town of Rajapur to be close to the river. They work the land but do not own it.

Sundari also keeps a small pig. She received a first pig from BASE which she kept for a year and sold for 11,000 rupees. She used the money to buy another pig for 5,000 rupees and used the rest to cover expenses, which amount to about 2,500 rupees a month. She thinks the pig idea is fine but would like to own more.

Prasad, 63, has been fishing since the age of 17 and makes his own nets which are held down by scores of tiny lead weights. We accompany him down to the river, which is very shallow, and he spends the next two hours treading through the water. He fishes for two to three hours every day and catches around two kilos of fish which he sells for around 1,200 rupees in the market. Today’s catch is considerably less than two kilos.

Fishing and pigs hardly generate a decent wage. Yet Prasad and Sundari look puzzled when we ask if they would choose different occupations. The fact is that their options are limited. Fishing provides an income, for sure, but there is competition from other fishing families and this keeps prices low. In addition, this family lives out of town and is isolated from other Badi, which deprives them of group support and rules out collaborative activities like a savings group.

Pigs might be one solution and Sundari knows pigs. But she makes it clear she will need more than one pig to build up some capital and produce a sustained income.

Sundari Badi received a pig from BASE

Next: The Gandarbha Minstrels