Policy and Livelihood Challenges for India’s Fishing Communities: Fisheries, the Climate Crisis and the Indian state’s response

India’s fishing communities have had to grapple with multiple challenges over the past few years. These include the impacts of extreme weather events related to climate change that have directly affected their livelihoods, the ongoing economic and health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and various policy battles at the national and international levels. Fishworkers Unions have voiced their concerns on the 2021 Draft Marine Fisheries Bill as it was tabled by the Government without due consultation. In addition, the imminent adoption of the June 2022 WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies will force countries such as India to curtail subsidies to the sector, which will further endanger the livelihood of these fishing
communities.

In these series of videos we discuss the implications of climate change and the challenges that this is posing for the fishing communities, as well as the state response in terms of mitigation and adaptation policies geared towards the fisheries sector in India. We also discuss the current status of policy formulation and listen to the representatives of trade unions and other networks about the situation on ground.

These videos are from an online dialogue on Policy and Livelihood Challenges for India’s Fishing Communities — Fisheries, the Climate Crisis and the Indian state’s response which was organised on October 09, 2022. The Dialogue is the second in a two-part series and brings together experts on trade negotiations, fisheries subsidies and economic aspects of the sector to discuss the implications of the WTO Agreement on fishing communities.

Collaborating organisations included: National Fishworkers Forum (NFF), National Platform for Small Scale Fish Workers (NPSSFW), All India Fishers and Fisheries Workers’ Federation (AIFFWF), Delhi Forum, National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS), All India Peoples Science Network (AIPSN), Focus on the Global South.

Video 1 — Climate Change and Marine Fisheries of the East Coast India

Speaker: Professor Sugata Hazra (Department of Oceanographic Studies, Jadavpur University), Moderator: D. Raghunandan (All India Peoples Science Network)

Video 2 — Climate Change, Resource Depletion & Socio-economics of Traditional Fishers in Southwest Coast India