In the south-western coastal region of Bangladesh, the verdant, salt-tinged landscape recounts a tale of economic development and environmental transformation. Here, shrimp aquaculture has burgeoned into a lucrative industry, generating billions in exports and reshaping the local economy. Yet beneath this veneer of success, a sinister narrative evolves, one marked by the systemic exploitation of women labourers who form the backbone of this industry.

The rise of shrimp aquaculture in Bangladesh, driven by global demand, is emblematic of a broader trend of neoliberal globalization that prioritizes profit over people. In this context, women working in the shellfish aquaculture sector find themselves entangled in a web of exploitation that reflects the theories of biopopulationism, geopopulationism, and demopopulationism.

Economic Marginalization and Gendered Labour

Women in the south-western coastal region of Bangladesh are integral to the shrimp aquaculture industry, engaging in labour-intensive duties such as feeding shrimps, scrubbing ponds, and separating harvests. Despite their crucial position, these women often work in severe conditions with minimal protections and little regard for their well-being. The economic benefits of shrimp aquaculture are not equitably shared, leaving these labourers in precarious situations with few alternatives.

The principles of biopopulationism help illuminate this exploitation. Biopopulationism refers to the enhancement of life itself through techno-scientific means marketed as consumer products. Rather than being regarded as valued contributors to the industry, these women are often seen as passive inputs in a system designed to maximize efficiency and profit. Their lives are commodified, with their labour being utilized to enhance the productivity of shrimp farms while their health and safety are sidelined.

Environmental and Spatial Control

The environmental effect of shrimp aquaculture is another issue where geopopulationism becomes significant. Geopopulationism encompasses both direct and indirect techniques of population control via practices of space construction, including management, monitoring, and exclusion of certain populations from specified locations. The growth of shrimp farms sometimes includes the conversion of mangroves and other critical habitats into shrimp ponds. This land change not only destroys local biodiversity but also displaces people, many of them are women and their families. The spatial control enforced by shrimp farming operations results in a sort of environmental expropriation where the health of the land and the well-being of its inhabitants are sacrificed for profit.

Women working in these shrimp farms are routinely subjected to dangerous working conditions and exposed to toxic toxins. The disrespect for their environmental and personal health echoes the wider geopolitical dynamics of resource exploitation, where the global North’s need for cheap shrimp results in environmental degradation and social inequities in the global South.

The Neoliberal Fetishization of Empowerment

The language of neoliberal empowerment, which promotes individual choice and market engagement as means to development, fails to address the reality faced by these women. Instead of identifying their challenges as systemic concerns of labour exploitation and environmental injustice, the narrative generally glorifies the industry’s economic success without mentioning the human cost.

The commercialisation of labour in the shrimp farming business represents a demopopulationism approach, which focuses on population control via tactics that regulate and optimize individual lives within a market framework. In this situation, life itself is controlled for commercial advantage, as the labour of women is taken to enhance shrimp farm output, but their well-being is neglected. This dynamic is worsened by the larger neoliberal agenda that privatizes risks and duties, putting the responsibility of negotiating precarious employment circumstances on individual workers rather than on structural improvements.

Call to Action

It is necessary to redefine the narrative around shrimp farming in Bangladesh to emphasise the exploitation of women labourers and the environmental devastation that accompanies it. Policy solutions must address these challenges directly, providing equitable salaries, safe working conditions, and environmental safeguards. Furthermore, worldwide consumers and companies must realise their involvement in perpetuating these injustices and push for better ethical and ecological practices in the shrimp sector.

By addressing the linkages of gender, labour, and environmental justice, we can strive towards a more equitable and sustainable future for the women who are at the core of the shrimp farming sector. Their views and experiences must be crucial to any attempts to address the exploitation and environmental degradation that characterise this worldwide business.

The Writers are Master’s students at Department of Sociology, University of Dhaka