Tuesday, April 13, 2010

National census on fisherfolk to begin on Friday



By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express on April 13, 2010:

CHENNAI: With the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) embarking on a mammoth data collection exercise - National Marine Fisheries Census 2010 - from Friday across all the coastal states, the country would be getting a detailed report on marine fisherfolk population and their economic status in four months.
Conducted after every five years, the massive exercise was to gather various details related to the marine fisherfolk.

Elaborating the details of the census to Express, G. Mohanraj, Principal Scientist and scientist-in-charge, Chennai Research Centre of CMFRI, said, “In the month-long exercise, which will be held from April 16 to May 15, trained enumerators will ascertain details like the total number of marine fishermen, their crafts and gears, socio-economic profile, demographic features and behavioural parameters.”

Of the 2,100 enumerators trained by scientists of CMFRI for the nation-level exercise, more than 450 were from Tamil Nadu who would embark on the mission from Chennai, Tuticorin and Mandapam centres, Mohanraj added.

Keeping with the changing trends, enumerators during this year’s census would seek additional information like attitude towards fisheries regulations, awareness of climate change, extent of labour migration and perceived constraints.

The data would be analysed by the CMFRI to develop a comprehensive census database in next three months which would be helpful in facilitating formulation of fisheries related plans and policies in the marine sector.

The last census conducted in 2005 revealed that the total number of fishermen was 3.52 million living in 7,56,212 households spread across 3,202 marine fishing villages. There were 2,38,772 crafts of which 58,911 were mechanised, 75,591 were motorised.

After analysing the collected data, it was found that women formed 48.6 per cent of the population with 948 females for every 1000 males. Out of 29,241 trawlers in the fishery Gujarat (8,002) accounted for the maximum number followed by Tamil Nadu (5,300), Maharashtra (4,219), Kerala (3982) and other states.
It also revealed that nearly 62 per cent of the families involved in fishing did not possess any craft.

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