In a dried fish camp in Bakkhali, West Bengal, Jamuna Khatuwa waits for trucks loaded with fish. When it arrives, the fish must be sorted fast, separated into baskets.

“Each variety has a different drying time. If you mix them, it ruins the whole lot,” Jamuna’s hands move instinctively. In her late fifties, she works as a coastal fishworker from October to February, segregating and drying fish, discarding unwanted parts, hanging certain varieties on bamboo poles. During the monsoon, she picks up other work.

Having moved to Bakkhali from Namkhana after marriage, she entered this work to save money for her son’s education. “He wanted to be a pilot,” she tells me, a dream far from the coast’s salty air. He passed away some years ago, but Jamuna stayed. She now lives with her husband.

On days when fish is available and supplied to shabars—enclosed camps along the seashore where the fish is dried—Jamuna starts her day between 5 and 7 am, depending on when the unloading begins. After sorting—mainly shrimp, anchovies, Bombay duck, ribbon fish, among other varieties smaller in quantity—she attends to the fish that have been drying for days, flipping them. Some varieties, like tengra, have small, sharp teeth that slice open her fingers. There is no first aid, or protective gear to stave off such injuries. There are no toilets, no shade. A break for lunch, after which they return, if any fish remains.

Jamuna and the other women earn between rupees 250 and 380 a day, depending on how many baskets they get through, paid by the shabar owners who sell the dried fish. Being paid under the hajra system—a wage structure that offers no security under the conditions of “no work, no pay”—means a precarious life.

These women, like fishermen, are the first to experience the effects of the climate crisis on the ocean. Post-cyclones like Yaas and Amphan, they confront concerns like fish coming in slower and fewer. With diminishing catch and therefore, less fish to dry, Jamuna sometimes earns nothing. When I ask if she ever thought of leaving, she says,  “What else would I do? I never studied. This is all I know.”