Empowerment of Women in the Fisheries Industry

Abstract

The important involvement of women in natural resource based livelihood and resource management in the developing world has long been acknowledged, but rarely been valued equally with the contribution of men. Reasons for lack of documentation of role of women are – production goals continue to dominate national policy, gender division of work in fisheries, women rarely have access to the process of management and women are rarely represented in formal institutions of fisheries management. Men and women are engaged in complementary activities in fisheries. In India women contribute to pre & post – harvest operations. About 25% are involved in pre-harvest, 60% in export marketing and 40% in internal marketing. Of the 1.2 million work force, 0.5 million are poor and wage rates are comparatively low. Women’s perspective should be included in designing and implementing macro economics and social policies by institutionalizing their participation in such process.