Women make up nearly half of India’s marine fisheries workforce, yet policies to strengthen the country’s blue economy are leaving women behind, reports contributor Priyamvada Kowshik for Mongabay India.

India’s draft blue economy policy framework aims to significantly boost the contribution of marine resources to the country’s GDP, and at the same time improve the lives of coastal communities, generate millions of jobs, and preserve marine biodiversity.

However, Kowshik writes that fisheries groups and researchers who have studied the draft policy note the “limited prioritization of women’s employment in the blue economy framework.”

“A significant portion of women’s livelihoods in coastal regions depends directly on marine ecosystems,” Chime Youdon, head of the Blue Economy and Climate Change cluster at the National Maritime Foundation, a think tank, told Mongabay India. “Their work not only sustains local communities but also makes a tangible contribution to India’s GDP.”

Out of the 4 million marine fisherfolk in India, roughly 47% are women. They work largely in the post-harvest processing, as well as marketing and sales.

Shaila D’Mello, the president of a small-scale responsible fishers’ union in the western state of Goa, told Mongabay India that illegal overfishing by trawlers is reducing fish populations. Furthermore, open spaces and common areas essential for processing activities like curing or drying fish are becoming increasingly inaccessible, she added.

“Government subsidies to small fisherfolks are also drying up or delayed inordinately. We are being forced out of our traditional livelihood,” D’Mello said. “How does [the blue economy framework] plan to secure our livelihoods and provide us opportunities to thrive?”

D’Mello previously earned her living from fishing and fish processing, but now supplements her income by working as a cook in villas around her village during the day, and sweeps the roads as a part-time municipal worker in the evening.

Olencio Simoes, general secretary of the National Fishworkers Forum (NFF), said that despite the NFF being India’s largest and oldest organization of fishers, it wasn’t invited to stakeholder consultations in drafting India’s blue economy policy framework. He added that many projects under the framework don’t favor fisherfolks, and that women are particularly vulnerable.

Lakshmi Kovvada, president of a fish-workers’ union affiliated with the NFF, told Mongabay India she’s worried about fisherwomen increasingly being forced to look for work as domestic helpers.

Youdon said the voices and perspectives of coastal women “must be acknowledged, valued, and integrated into policy frameworks to ensure sustainable and inclusive development.”

This is a summary of “Fisherwomen ride the rough waves while India’s blue economy blooms” by Priyamvada Kowshik for Mongabay India

Banner image of fisherwomen selling fish at a market in Kerala. Image by India Water Portal via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).