Empowerment of Women in Fisheries: Evidence from Ganjam District of Odisha

Abstract

The present study was conducted to assess the empowerment level of women in the fisheries sector in the Ganjam district of Odisha. In the inland sector, the highest numbers of women are of the fishermen population in Ganjam district i.e. 29476 out of a total 263514 number of female fisheries population of the state (Directorate of Fisheries, Government of Odisha, 2015). A very good concentration of women is involving in fisheries activities in this district. But when sector-specific cases are concerned, there are very few studies found where different dimensions of women empowerment through fisheries are discussed. The results revealed that the majority of the respondents (66.60%) in the Inland sector are grouped under a medium level of empowerment followed by low and high-level empowerment (16.70%). These results indicated that there is a significant move towards the empowerment of women in the case of inland fisheries. However, in the Marine sector equal percentage of respondents belonged to both medium and high levels of women empowerment i.e. each 30 (50.00%) and low level of empowerment was nil which indicates the level of empowerment in the marine fisheries activities compared to inland fisheries. With this background, the overall empowerment score was categorized into the low, medium, and high level of empowerment where a majority of the respondents (71.6%) were under the medium level of empowerment followed by the equal percentage of the low and high level of empowerment (14.2%). The composite score of empowerment of women is also encouraging. However, efforts are needed to bring women empowerment from medium level to a higher level. There is also a need to uplift a section of women who are still in the lower category of empowerment.