ABSTRACT
In this and the following chapter I turn to the following question: Does Kerala’s economy need the work of children? In view of the limited nature of the data, I will answer this question by concentrating on fisheries and coir-yarn manufacture, referring to my own Poomkara data for comparison. The economic history of the two economic sectors has followed a markedly disparate course: while coir-yarn manufacture
flourished until the 1950s and showed a steady decline thereafter, the growth of the fisheries is more recent, and dates back to the 1960s. The analysis of coir, which is the subject of the next chapter, will bring me back, in an attempt at understanding the transformation undergone by children’s work, several decades. In this chapter, in which I explore whether the pattern followed by children’s work in fisheries as observed in Poomkara is also relevant for other parts of the coast, the focus is on a more recent period of Kerala’s economic history. I begin by comparing labour relations of adult men and then draw some lines from the very scattered evidence available from secondary sources on children’s work. I proceed, finally, by focusing on the interface between commercial and subsistence activities, to link the competitiveness of the artisanal sector to children’s work roles.
