Empowering Shores: The Role of Fisherwomen in Socio-Economic Development in the Kanathur to Kovalam Coastal Villages

Abstract

Kanathur to Kovalam, the coastal state of Tamil Nadu in India connected fishing industry which has been the primary source for many families’ livelihood. While men are very celebrated for their fishing prowess, the participation of women in the growth and development of fishing society economy cannot be overemphasized. Since there are multiple functions that the members of this sex perform in these coastal villages, greater emphasis will be put on the economic, social, and organizational contributions that fisherwomen make to the existence of the community. The background of the study is quick overview in which the author underlines that in Kanathur to Kovalam coastal fishing business most of the owners are male, and the major portion of the fishermen population is male. However, they engage in the post-harvest sector including in marketing, processing and management of money earnings. Fisherwomen contribute a lot and still suffer from marginalization on decision making, poor education, and prejudice base on their gender. Understanding all the complexities of PAs’ roles and challenges they face is vital in the attainment of gender parity and enhancement of the overall socio-economic status of the fishing society.

This research uses both quantitative questionnaires and qualitative questionnaires to assess the participants’ information. The said research aims to discover and record the Kanathur to Kovalam coastal villages’ fisherwomen, their contributions economically, socially and the issues which they have to cope with; and final but not the least possible policy suggestions that can be made for their better future. The quantitative data will be obtained from questionnaires because these are structured and will help obtain the following information; gender, age, occupation, income, level of education and community participation. The ‘rich’ data will be gathered through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions in order to explore the major life experiences, struggles, and strategies developed by fisherwomen, as well as their gender roles’ attitudes. Descriptive statistics will be employed on quantitative data to describe the frequency, proportion, mean, standard deviation and probabilities to determine association or relationship between the variables.

 This study reveals that women are involved in fishing operations especially in post-harvest activities such as fish processing, preservation and marketing. The economic activities that the refugees engage in greatly help in the incomes of the households and the economy. But, the books they produce are not compensated and paid as much as the males in their line of work. After observing the traditional roles that have been assigned to fisherwomen socially, it is evident that are play a central role of ensuring family and even the community cohesiveness. They are usually the ones who are involved in the management of households’ finances, provision of food for the family, and social and cultural activities. These active participants in community-based organization, as well as relations with key people and friends in the informal network, improve the entirety of the community and its social capital.

 However, the fisherwomen are faced with lots of problems such as Gender Discrimination, limited Education and Training and exclusion from decisions making. These are practices that limit them from carrying out optimal fishing activities or from generally enjoying from the fruits of the industry. Also, they experience the occupational risks and the health problems as a result of the rigorous work they do and poor health services. In order to overcome them, there is a need to design specific measures and reflections aimed at equality between women and men that will help to give proper conditions at work for the fisherwomen.