Empowerment of Fisherwomen Involved in Post-Harvest Activities of Marine Fisheries in Uttara Kannada District of Karnataka

Abstract

The study focuses on the empowerment of fisherwomen engaged in post-harvest activities in the marine fisheries sector of Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka. The fisheries sector plays a significant role in the livelihoods of millions of people, particularly women who are vital to sustaining households and contributing to the economy. Despite their contributions, fisherwomen often remain marginalized in decision-making, credit access, and training. Present study measures empowerment across five dimensions: psychological, cultural, social, economic, and political. The data was collected by using pre tested interview schedule. A total of 120 fisherwomen were selected through random sampling method. Findings revealed that cultural empowerment is the highest with mean score (83.10), followed by index for social empowerment of the fisherwomen was 74.32, whereas political empowerment was found to be low (34.83). It also revealed that in Uttara Kannada less than two third (61.67 %) of the fisherwomen had low level of empowerment, The study underscores the need for targeted interventions to enhance fisherwomen's roles and status, particularly in economic and political domains.