Tracing the road ahead for women in fisheries in Asia, a continent that produces the most fish and supports the largest number of fishers in the world

Gopal, Nikita

Aquatic Commons

ASIAREGIONAL
Tracing the road ahead for women in fi sheries in Asia, 
a continent that produces the most fi sh and supports the 
largest number of fi shers in the world
Half the fishers in the world
By Nikita Gopal 
(nikiajith@gmail.com), 
Principal Scientist, 
ICAR-Central Institute of 
Fisheries Technology, 
Cochin, India
Fishing and the fi sheries are a major source of food and livelihood for millions of people in Asia. Many 
Asian countries like China, India, Indonesia, 
Japan, Thailand and Vietnam are major fi sh 
producers. The fi sheries policies in these 
countries have centred on increasing 
production over the last two decades. This 
has resulted in investments in centralized 
infrastructure development, along with 
introduction of bigger sized crafts, gears and 
different fi shing systems. In many developing 
and less developed countries in the region, this 
has had government funding.
Though there are boundaries defi ned 
to differentiate fi shing zones for traditional 
small-scale and larger vessels in the region, 
policing of the violations is diffi cult and 
often inadequate. Confl ict situations are also 
observed between different fi shery users in 
the countries in the region. On the whole, 
over capacity, increase in population, and 
decrease in available resources has led to the 
increased vulnerability of small-scale fi shers. 
Fishing capacity increases have not necessarily 
refl ected in increased per unit catches or 
better returns to the primary producers. 
Fisher producers have become fi sher 
labourers working on bigger crafts, or are 
migrating out of the sector. Fishing trips 
are becoming longer and less economical. 
Another key development during the last 
two decades has been the infl ux of electronic 
communication, and the fi sheries sector 
has witnessed increasing use of Information 
and Communications Technologies (ICTs) for 
both backward and forward link activities.
A major shift in production has been the 
emergence of aquaculture as an alternative to 
capture based fi sh production. By 2006, most 
of the production in the sector came from 
culture. In many countries in the region 
like Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh and 
India, major fi sh production comes from 
aquaculture rather than capture fi sheries. 
Many factors such as unsustainable and over 
exploitative practices of many capture based 
fi sheries, climate change induced impacts, 
and development activities along coastal areas 
have also had an impact on coastal fi sheries 
and aided the growth of aquaculture. 
Aquaculture is more akin to agriculture and 
many of the factors of production can be 
reasonably controlled. Though there are many 
risks associated especially with regard to 
disease outbreaks and environmental concerns, 
this sector is growing and will continue to 
occupy an important place in future fi sh 
production. The past two decades have seen 
many countries evolving policies to develop 
aquaculture, with an eye on lucrative export 
markets. For developing countries in Asia and 
elsewhere, fi sh trade is clearly a signifi cant 
source of foreign exchange. The growth of 
aquaculture has seen the emergence of a 
new class of non-fi sher entrepreneurs, with 
coastal farmers shifting from rice cultivation 
to shrimp farming. This trend was also 
visible in an earlier era, when the capital 
intensive mechanization of capture fi sheries 
shifted the ownership of vessels into the hands 
of non-fi shers.
Women have been an integral part of 
fi sheries. All over the world, studies have 
acknowledged that women form half the 
workforce in fi sheries, especially in Asian 
countries. With small-scale and often 
subsistence fi sheries and aquaculture 
dominating, it is imperative for the fi shing 
communities that both men and women 
engage in the sector, which is a source of food 
and income for their families. However, the 
sector has strong gender divisions of labour, 
hosting much invisible women’s work in 
fi sheries and in fi sheries production chains, 
and limiting women’s access to the means of 
A woman feeding in aquaculture pond, India. Women contribute in almost all 
activities right from pond preparation, stocking, feeding, and to harvesting
SIBASIS GUHA / CIFT
production in fi sheries and in aquaculture 
because of cultural taboos and practices. 
Women have always been a dominating 
presence in marketing of fi sh, mostly in retail 
trade. They have been traditional processors 
of fi sh and also contribute to the growing 
labour force in the industrial processing 
sector. Though not so highly noticeable, a 
small proportion of women have always been 
involved in fi sh capture, often using nets 
and traps in inshore waters and inland water 
bodies. They have also gleaned for molluscs, 
crustaceans and fi sh. Fry collection for 
aquaculture is carried out by women in 
India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in inter-tidal 
waters. However, closed seasons in various 
areas due to conservation efforts have made 
these areas inaccessible and have affected 
livelihoods. We also have women diving for 
crustaceans, molluscs, coral and other fi shes 
and seaweeds in Japan, Korea and India. 
Evidence from certain countries suggests that 
women are working on commercial fi shing 
vessels but they form a very small minority. 
Women as harvesters have always engaged 
in subsistence fi shing to make ends meet for 
their families. Women are rarely encouraged 
to take up fi shing, as fi shing has always 
been thought of as a male preserve. Post-
capture activities are a niche area for 
women, be it sorting the landed catch, or in 
processing and marketing and processing.
In the industrial fi sheries too, commercial 
processing is dominated by women in most 
Asian countries, including India, Thailand, 
Bangladesh and Vietnam.
The changes in the fi sheries sector have 
affected women in many ways. The increased 
mechanization and the centralization of 
landings to bigger harbours from the beaches 
have meant loss of employment for the 
fi sherwomen, who once were the custodians 
of fi sh after landing. Women took over in the 
supply chain thereafter, and engaged in the 
marketing or processing of fi sh. In India, 
for instance, fi shing operations have shifted 
from beach landings near fi shing villages 
to more urban based harbours. The landed 
fi sh is now auctioned and marketed through 
institutionalized labour organisations in 
these harbours. Women fi nd it diffi cult 
to penetrate this set up. It has also meant 
travelling from their fi shing villages, disrupting 
set work regimes and increasing workload. 
Women have also lost the bargaining power 
they once enjoyed, when the landings were 
within their reach. Now they have to depend 
on the auctioning being carried out in the 
harbours, and their resources do not permit 
them to be active in the process. A change 
that may be noticed, however, is that many 
women are becoming auctioneers or agents 
of auctioneers.
While women continue to be active in 
fi sh marketing in most Asian countries, the 
physical conditions are still very dismal. 
Upscaling their fi sh businesses is a problem 
because of lack of resources, and they 
continue to be small players in the larger 
scheme of things. Aquaculture, being similar 
to agriculture, should have seen more 
participation of women. However, here too 
they continue to be near invisible. A recent 
study by the Network of Aquaculture Centres 
in Asia-Pacifi c across Thailand, Vietnam, 
Cambodia and Lao PDR that focused on 
small-scale aquaculture systems (see the article 
‘Women in Aquaculture’ in this issue, based 
on this study) found that women were present 
in all the major nodes of the aquaculture 
value chains. They contribute in almost 
all activities right from pond preparation, 
stocking, feeding, water management and 
healthcare, to harvesting. Since they are seldom 
categorized as hired labour and contribute 
mostly in the form of family labour, the 
invisibility was high. In industrial processing, 
the shop fl oor almost entirely comprises 
women’s labour, involving working long 
hours and standing in cold conditions that are 
required for processing. However, in all 
countries, it has been observed that women 
are disadvantaged as far as the wages are 
concerned and invariably earn less than the 
men engaged in this industry. The working 
conditions also leave a lot to be desired.
On the whole, women take on a range of 
work within the fi sheries and within fi shing 
communities in Asia. The nature of work 
varies with the social and cultural 
distinctiveness of their countries, but the 
underlying similarity is that it is rarely seen as 
being ‘productive’. Though it is acknowledged 
that women are the custodians of traditional 
knowledge about their natural environment 
and resources, women’s work in the fi sheries, 
being subsistence and family oriented, 
remains invisible.
Largely limited to the post-harvest sector 
and marketing, women in the fi sheries face 
limitations in their scale of operations as a 
result of low levels of both investments as 
well as risk-bearing abilities due to lack of 
access to resources like institutional credit 
and technological innovations such as ice 
boxes and proper storage mechanisms. 
Though initiatives in micro-credit have 
helped women from other sectors to begin 
Women’s work in 
the fi sheries, being 
subsistence and family 
oriented, remains 
invisible.
micro-enterprises, they have largely been 
under-utilized and not completely effective 
in fi sheries. Studies in India and Philippines 
have shown that micro-credit can often be 
diverted to meet family needs. Women need 
to fi nd ways to exploit the opportunities to 
tap micro-credit, and utilize it effectively, as 
credit from other institutional sources may 
continue to be diffi cult to obtain.
Even when women are actively engaged in 
economic activity, it has been observed that 
their income is not always under their own 
control, which poses a big social challenge. 
Poor physical conditions of work have been 
highlighted quite often, but continue to get 
little or no policy level attention or fi eld 
level intervention. This is the case in both 
marketing and processing. To equip women 
to meet the changes taking place with regard 
to electronic devices and applications, skill 
development training opportunities must be 
made available. Technical training in other 
fi sheries related areas such as management 
of aquaculture farms and other fi sh related 
businesses are also required. 
A larger, but more important, issue is 
the disruption or displacement of lives and 
livelihoods due to anthropogenic or natural 
factors. Development initiatives, climate 
change impacts and natural disasters call for 
mitigation strategies that must also include 
capacity building, especially to help women to 
meet the emotional as well as physical aspects 
of the losses they incur. In most natural 
calamities, women are seen to be the more 
vulnerable. 
For women to be able to articulate their 
concerns and needs, formation of formal 
organizations is essential. The one network 
that was established in the late 1990s and still 
continues to be active is the Mekong River 
Commission’s ‘Network on Gender and 
Fisheries’ active in the Thailand, Vietnam, 
Cambodia and Loa PDR. 
This network aims to improve the 
visibility of women’s contribution in 
the fi sheries sector. It works towards 
suitable policies and programmes to support 
their work and it tries to improve women’s 
decision making power in the household 
and community, and at the government and 
policy level, highlighting fi sherwomen’s 
achievements in the region and initiating 
programmes for their benefi t.
Will mere inclusion in fi sheries related 
activities be able to empower women? This 
is a question that needs thought. Often it has 
been observed that attempts at inclusion 
have meant increased workloads which are 
not commensurate with returns. Sensitivity 
to gender issues is still low, not only within 
households and within the community but also 
among extension personnel who work with 
fi shers. Development efforts by governments 
and NGOs are inadequate and existing 
legislation usually poor. The lack of appropriate 
and relevant sex-disaggregated databases 
adds to policy blindness—a problem which, if 
addressed, could serve as a basis for effective 
planning. 
Programmes need not be considered as 
‘women programmes’; the involvement of 
the community as a whole is required. The 
participation of women in all areas in the 
sector, from resource management to policy 
decisions, must be ensured. 


Half the fishers in the world

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Half the fishers in the world

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