Inter-sectoral Disparity and Marginalization in Marine Fisheries in India
Year: 2009
Type: article
Abstract: Fisheries policy in the eleventh plan aims at sustainable economic growth, with due \t \nconcerns on food and nutritional security and supply side responses. The plan accords overarching \t \npriorities on bridging the sharpening divides and increasing disparities in all sectors. The socio-\t \neconomic framework of the fishing community with structural changes in coastal sector needs \t \nsuccessful design and implementation of development programs. This article highlights the sectoral \t \ngrowth of fishing units and their capital investment over the years, change in ownership pattern \t \nof means of production, earnings, sectoral disparity, and inequity among marine fisher folk in \t \nIndia. Base material for the analysis includes primary data collected from selected centers of \t \nmaritime states in India and secondary data on marine fisheries census of CMFRI and other \t \nrelevant publications. \t \nThere has been sizeable growth of 70% in the mechanized fishing units and about 200% \t \ngrowth in motorized sector that are technically efficient (over the last 12 years until 2005). \t \nHowever, there has been a downtrend of 43% in the nonmechanized units (traditional sector) \t \ndenoting a gradual phasing out of less efficient units. The improved socio-economic status of \t \nfishers is reflected by increase in literacy level, reduction in dropouts, and improvement in housing \t \ntype. The proportion of owner operators in marine fisheries declined over the years with the \t \nincreasing capital requirement for possessing motorized and mechanized fishing units. The \t \nfishermen involved in active fishing is more than the absorbing capacity of the fisheries sector \t \nleading to disguised unemployment and has led to lower per capita production, increased pressure \t \non fishing, which results in juvenile catch, large level discards, and thus ultimately causing \t \nserious threats to resource sustainability and environmental stability. The nonmechanized sector \t \nis providing about 33% of the employment in active fishing, yet harvesting hardly 7% of the \t \nannual landings, whereas mechanized segment that employs 34% harvests 70% of total catch \t \ncreating wide inter-sectoral income disparity. The annual per capita catch of fisher folk in \t \nmechanized segment is more than twice as those of the per capita catch of the motorized segment \t \nand nine times of the per capita catch of the nonmechanized (traditional sector) segment clearly \t \nsignifying growing inter-sectoral disparity in distribution of economic gains. Average annual per \t \ncapita earnings of fishing laborer range from Rs.13,200 for a motorized dingi with bagnet to Rs. 1,27,200 for a mechanized purse seiner. Significant variation is also observed even within \t \ngroups of crafts namely trawlers, gillnetters, purseseiners, motorized, and traditional crafts. The \t \nanalysis indicate that there is high incidence of poverty in the coastal rural sector explicitly \t \nrevealing that majority of these people still could not get much of the benefits of the economic \t \ndevelopment taken place in our country.
Source: Asian Fisheries Science
Author: R. SATHIADHAS
Language: English
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1569205221