News
Clam collectors, deep in mud and poverty, struggle for survival
View(s):Pix and text by Hiran Priyankara Jayasinghe
ICHCHANKADUWA, Kalpitiya: Villagers spend hours in the muddy waters of the lagoon, under the scorching sun, collecting clams (matti) to make a living.
Most of them are women living in poverty, with little choice but to enter the lagoon, as they are the family’s breadwinners. Some also have elderly parents to care for.
They step into the muddy waters, which often heat up during the day, and scour through the mud to collect clams.
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- S.A. Gunawathi
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- Mangalika Kumudini Fernando
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- Inoka Sandhya Kumari
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- Clam collectors, assisted by their children and grandchildren, go about their daily work to earn a meagre living
Inoka Sandhya Kumari, one of more than 50 women who collect clams, told the Sunday Times that she took up this job after losing her husband, as she had to fend for six children. She said one of her daughters with three children had lost her husband, and she was looking after them as well.
“What we earn is hardly enough for a meal, but yet we engage in this business as we have no alternative,” she said.
Another clam collector, Mangalika Kumudini Fernando, said she too took up this job as she could not find any other job in the area. Some women bring their children along with them to collect clams.
Sixty-five-year-old Mary Philomina said she was living on her own in a fisher hut, doing labour work after her husband’s death.
Collecting clams is a difficult job, as broken glass bottles are sometimes found in the water, leaving us injured,” she said.
S.A. Gunawathi said that doctors have advised her not to remain in the water for too long, but she could buy her medicines only if she collected clams and sold them.
The women also said that due to poverty and the nature of their work, their children’s education has been disrupted.
At the main fish market in Peliyagoda, clams are sold for Rs. 1,000 to 1,600 per kilogram. However, the women collectors, by selling their two- to three-kilogram catch to middlemen, earn only Rs. 1,000 a day.
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