Women ahoy!

To arrive at a plan of action for the empowerment of women in coastal communities was the idea behind this workshop organised by Nabard

To improve the socio-economic well being of the coastal fishing community and to mitigate their problems of food security and poverty alleviation through an appropriate credit delivery system, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), Mumbai in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, Rome organised a national workshop on the Micro-finance Programme for Women in Coastal Fishing Communities at Panaji, Goa from july 1-4, 2003.

Besides Binoo Sen, Secretary, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, the participation list also included delegates and representatives of the FAO, the Bay of Bengal Programme (BOBP), various Government of India institutions, ICAR (Indian Council for Agricultural Research), Department of Fisheries of coastal states, Financial institutions, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, leading NGOs and the Fishing Chimes.

Objective

Analysing and documenting recent experiences with micro-finance support for coastal fishing communities and poverty alleviation in India was the primary objective behind this initiative by Nabard and the FAO. The lessons learnt are to be utilised for evolving an effective credit delivery system in support of responsible, sustainable and environmentally friendly small scale coastal fishing activities as well as alternate income generating activities. These objectives were announced by MA Upare, GM (fisheries), Nabard in his welcome address. Dr U Tietze, Fisheries Industries Officer, FAO, Rome while appreciating the tremendous strides made by India in fisheries development stressed on the importance of micro-finance as a crucial development tool for poverty reduction. He also highlighted the concerns and role of the UN and the FAO in addressing the issues of food insecurity and rural poverty as well as credit initiatives for the fisheries and agriculture sector. He also shared the FAO’s experience with micro-finance programmes in fisheries and the strategies for the future. Daniel Gustafson, the FAO representative in India, indicated the various roles played by the FAO in agriculture and rural development in India.

The various Government of India schemes directed towards the empowerment of women in coastal fishing were put forward by Ms Sen in her inaugural address. She strongly advocated the need for evolving a network of women in coastal fishing across the states in the country for information sharing and confidence building.

The deliberations

The economic empowerment of fisherwomen and involvement of micro-finance practices was discussed at length by the participants along with the issues of poverty relating to the coastal fishing communities in India. The role of technology for community development and the need for capacity building, the development potentials and sustainability of coastal fishing activities and community based conservation of fishery resource was also deliberated upon. As a solution to the existing woes of the fisherwomen the infrastructure support for various coastal fishing and alternate livelihood programmes as well as certain policy changes for meeting the special requirements of the community formed the focus of the discussion.

Recommendations

The recommendations made by the participants and ultimately adopted by the workshop were:

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