Women in fishing communities have

decisioh-making role in community management.

With the increasing commercialisation of fishing industry I

women's access to post-harvest operations

in fisheries has been declining: It is- estimated that only about 20 percent

of women from traditional fishing households

get opportunities for income generation from fishery related activities

which are seasonal

Mohanan, A N

Salini, K P

Srinath, Krishna

CMFRI Digital Repository

Awareness campaign for Fisherwomen Krishna Srinath, A.N. Mohanan and K.P. Salini CootrlJl MBrine Fisheries Reseerch Institute, Cochin Women in fishing communities have decisioh-making role in community man-agement. With the increasing commercialisation of fishing industry I women's access to post-harvest opera-tions in fisheries has been declining: It is- estimated that ani\- about io percent of women from traditional fishing house-holds get opportunities for income gen-, eration from fishery related activities which are seasonal. Nearness to fish landing and processing facilities is one of the determining factors of women's par-ticipation. Prawn peeling is an activity in which women are engaged in large num-bers. But the economic benefits are dis-tributive as more the quantity of prawn to be peeled, more will be the number Dr P.S.B.R. JBmes, Director, CMFRI, delivering the' Presidential address st the inaugurlJl session of the cBmPllfgn. Seet9dsre Dr. Krishna SrinBth, Sciootist, CMFRI, Mr. Dominic PresootBtion, M.L.A. Mrs. M_mmlJ Vergl/ese, Regionsl Director, w'orker.s EduclJtion Centre; Mr. K.J. L99nus, President, Chellsnam Ptlflchayat lind Rev. Fllther Norbet KochikBfBn Ve6tiI, St. George Church, ChellBnBm. PiJrtJclptlllts of the cBmPllign Bttlll/ding B lecture number of women required to do the job as the commodity is highly perishable and the processing plants are equipped for taking up huge quantities. The exte~t of involvement of women from traditional fishing households in these activities is to be examined. There are many instances of women from fish~ ing households migrating to other states to earn a livelihood mostly living from shrimp processing. Their conditions are reported to be deplorable. Net making is another activity in which machines have displaced women power. Thus as a re~ suit of marginalisation and lack of alter-natives and also the irregularity of in-come from fishing, women in traditional fishing communities are adversely af~ fected. There has been remarkable im~ provement in housing and clot~ing con-tributed by fishery·dependant develop· ment. Impact of moderni~ation is an· other aspect which requires d:etailed study. The need of the hour is to draw the att.ention of the women in traditional. fishing communities to various useful functional jobs avai lable to them and the means to moblise the same. Research project on fisherwomen The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute has been carrying out research programmes to · understand the socio-economic conditions of women in fish-ing communities. An action research to develop a methodology to empower the target group through extension educa-tion has thrown liQht on many issues' involved in their progress. The study is carried out in Chellanam fishing village near Cochin. Wards I·IV of the village have been adopted and women from the fishing households are organised into a society which is named as Matsya Mahila Vedi. Assessment of the needs of the target group showed that income gen-eration among women~folk was most urgent . The first step towards achieving this is to organise a series of extension education activities. The Institute has been organising a number of extension programmes (in the villages) involving R&D agencies in fish~ eries and other areas of development, with the help of Matsya Mahila Vedi. A five~day awareness cart:lpaign for fisherwomen was organised by the Insti: tute with the objective of bringing about -+ A participant pruenting her impl'e$$ions on the ClImplJign at the vllledictory .es.ion. Se.ted are Dr. M. K. Kandoran, Principal Scienti:rt, CIFT. Dr. K. GOJMkumar, Director, CIFT and M. S. _ Rajagopa/, Principal Scientist, awareness among women about their The campaign was inaugurated on situation and means available to them to 16 August 1993 by Mr. Dominic Presen-develop income generating enterprises. tation, M.L.A. , who reiterated the role of Forty women from among fishing and Institutes like CMFRI in human resource prawn farming households nominated development. Dr. P.S.B.R. James, Di-by Matsya Mahila Vedi participated in rector, CMFRI who presided over the the campaign. The campaign was spon- session highl1ghted the relevance of the so red by Central Board of Workers Edu- technologies for culture of clams and cation. other molluscs for the women in the Thec:urric:al1ua The curriculum included the topics given hereunder. The COOlmunication methods used were lectures, discussions, de.'1Ionstretions, simuletion ganes, film/shows, posters, charts and handouts. Topic Need for self-employment Need for organisation and cooperation Leadership-concept, meaning and functions Interpersonal relationship Enterprise building Enterprise management Entrepreneurial qualities Social evils Involving women in prawn farming Scientific prawn farming seed collection and identification On-farm prawn feed prduction-an activity for income generation Group concept in fisheries enterprises Fish processing technologies OfJve!opment support lor lisfienes en!erprise.~ Resource agency -Workers Education Centre CMFRI Institute of Management in Government AddictionCounsellingCentre (Project of Government India) Kerala Agricultural University CMFRI CMFRI CMFRI CIFT & IFP MPEDA & NABARD locality. Mr. K. J. Leanus, President of the Panchayat, Mrs . Mar iamma Verghese, Regional Director of Workers Education Centre, Mr. J .G. Menon, NABARD and Miss. P.A . Mable, Secre-tary, Matsya Mahila Vedi offered felici-tations. The valedictory session of the campaign was held on 20 August, 1993. Dr. K. Gopakumar, Director, CIFT deliv-ered the closing address . Mr. A .B. Mathew, District Council Membe~ and Dr. M.K. Kandoran, Principal Scientist and Head of Information, Statistics and Extension Division, CIFT, spoke. Dr M.S. Rajagopal, Principal Scientist and Head of Fishery Environment Management Division, CMFRI chaired the session. Evaluation An evaluation of the campaign indi-cated that it was for the first time that needs of women in this viHage were addressed to, integrating various aspects of the problem. Income generation through on-farm feed production was considered to be verY appropriate as the technology was very sjrnple. The recipes had been developed by CM FRI. It was proposed to organise intensive training in feed production during the year. ,The participants felt that creating awareness on financial support was crucial as people are often misguided by local ad vices. Alcoholism was the major problem which shattered their household economy. The campaign recommended the need for more such programmes concerned with .the issues confronting' fishing commu-nity. Target group organisation should be promoted. Village level forums such as Matsya Mahila Vedi could provide the leverage for communication and partici-patory approach to development. DNnOn8tl6tion of on-farm prawn feed produc-tion, b Dr. Man at Kaur, Scientist. CMFRI 

Awareness campaign for Fisherwomen

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Awareness campaign for Fisherwomen

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