Fish Out of Water : The Woes of Traditional Fishermen in Changing Work Paradigms on Fisheries

Industrialization and modernization in Indian fisheries necessitates the move from artisanal to capitalistic methods of production. As this transformation takes place, many artisanal fishers are forced to seek employment on trawlers and other fishing vessels owing to their lack of a capital base to purchase modern vessels themselves. Competition between trawlers can lead to cost reducing strategies that reduce the quality of working conditions for those employed in these vessels. This paper is an attempt to assess the working conditions of these workers through the use of indicators developed by the International Labor Office in the context of Decent Work. By utilizing data collected in the National sample Survey Organization's (NSSO) 68t round survey of Employment and Unemployment, we find that there are some areas in which the decency of work is lacking. The level of job security is highly inadequate among most who are employed in fisheries in the country. There is a marked absence of women in the labor pool, especially in unskilled tasks. Child labor, while not a cause for alarming concern, exists to a minor degree in the industry. Furthermore, freshwater fishing was found to afford lower standards of work than marine fishing. Regulation and policy action are called into requirement by these observations