Women constitute nearly half of the employed fisheries\u2019 workforce globally, with Indian fisherwomen population accounting to about 44% of the total fisher population. Women engage in various types of fish harvesting activities, small-scale near-by shore fishing activities and seaweed cultivation, fish cleaning, drying, salting and industrial processing. However fisheries, traditionally, has been a male-dominated sector where women\u2019s contributions go unrecognised and their income are highly undervalued. Therefore, empowerment and upliftment of 1.24 crore women workforce\u00a0engaged in fisheries activities is expected to hugely boost sectoral growth.<\/p>\n
Keeping in view the above critical aspects, Department of Fisheries (MoFAHD) organised a webinar\u00a0\u2018Women as catalyst for change\u2019\u00a0that brought forth discussion on the need to\u00a0narrow the gender gap in the fisheries sector. The webinar was chaired by\u00a0Dr. (Smt.) Suvarna Chandrappagari, IFS, Chief Executive (CE), National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB),\u00a0Hyderabad and was graced by the presence of\u00a0Dr. V. Krippa, Member Secretary, Coastal Aquaculture Authority (CAA), esteemed panellists Ms. Veenu Jaichand, Partner \u2013 Skill Development & Entrprnuership, Ernst & Young, Dr. Sriparna Baruha, Head, Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIIE), Assam and Dr. S. Glory Swarupa, Director General, National Institute for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Hyderabad.<\/p>\n
The event started with the Welcome address by Joint Secretary (Inland Fisheries), Dept of Fisheries. In his address JS (IF) highlighted the current scenario in the sector and requested the guest panlelists to share methodologies, ideas and initiatives that can encourage women to join the mainstream work in the fisheries sector. To set the context for the webinar, Dr V Krippa highlighted on-ground issues faced by\u00a0 women across the fisheries value chain and posed the question if the endeavours and initiatives being currently taken up are sufficient to empower women. Through her own experience during visits to States\/UTs, Chairperson, Dr Suvarna\u00a0highlighted issues where drudgery, hardship and gender biasness are prominently faced by women daily. NFDB\u2019s role as an instrumental agency in training and capacitating women in the fisheries sector was also highlighted.<\/p>\n
Further the guest panelists put forth their views on different solutions and opportunities that can resolve and bridge the gender gaps. Ms Jaichand emphasised on the\u00a0need to scale up skilling and capacity building of women\u00a0where\u00a0state governments\/UT administrations play a major role by coming forward and capacitating women. She also urged that the stakeholders should ensure that\u00a0appropriate job roles are created\u00a0to\u00a0match the appropriate skill sets.<\/p>\n
Dr. S Baruha shared the\u00a0success story of women led cluster\u00a0in the handloom industry in the North East Region where\u00a0\u2018social mobilisation\u2019 and \u2018collaboration amongst value chain stakeholders\u2019\u00a0played a key role. It was recommended that the cluster-approach thus plays a critical role in\u00a0restricting migration of youth\u00a0from rural to urban areas to ensure sustainability.<\/p>\n
Dr. G Swarupa highlighted the\u00a0need of customised strategies\u00a0for encouraging women to take up\u00a0entrepreneurial opportunities\u00a0through policy reforms, granting access to credit, loans and decision making. The outcome of creating a supportive ecosystem is expected to\u00a0reduce vulnerability and enhance credibility and confidence\u00a0amongst women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[178],"tags":[],"region":[],"source":[638],"country":[1949],"state":[],"city":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss\/96823"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/newss"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss\/96823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96824,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss\/96823\/revisions\/96824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96823"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=96823"},{"taxonomy":"source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/source?post=96823"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=96823"},{"taxonomy":"state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/state?post=96823"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=96823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}