Science, policy, and technology A girl born in 1985 will be 40 years old in another three years. It is likely that she already has her own family and possibly a teenage daughter. It is also equally likely that the daughter has the same anonymity as her mother, her work is not visible and she usually is not encouraged to express her views. The phrase, 'gender mainstreaming' was coined in 1985 during the Third World Conference on Women in Nairobi. Since then the phrase has entered into all developmental programmes, the latest of which is the Internaonal Year for Arsanal Fisheries and Aquaculture being celebrated in 2022. It is me now to look back and take stock of the situaon.
Women play a pivotal role in the fisheries sector, facilitating all aspects of fisheries from pre- to post-harvest activities apart from value addition activities and general well-being. Their role is more pronounced in the case of the artisanal and small-scale fisheries (ASSF), where the family still remains the whole production unit, in contrast to the commercial fisheries, where a factory-type arrangement is becoming more and more prevalent. Despite this, the role of women in the whole gamut of fisheries production remains largely curtailed. This has led to the inclusion of the “Pillar 5: Gender equality and equity: Acknowledging that women and men in small-scale artisanal fisheries and aquaculture are equals” in the Global Action Plan developed for IYAFA 2022.
While we have a clear goal thefor last forty years that gender mainstreaming should be done, there is no clear guidance at the least, on how it can be done. As far as the economic empowerment of women is concerned, the effort is largely in terms of bringing market-based activities to women or developing a market for many non-market activities carried out by women. To do this, the planners and policymakers (or the aimers) usually followed a benevolent administrative approach, developed, at best, through a Delphi method, to formulate general schemes and programmes. This is akin to the stories of the 'White Knight” galloping to save a 'lady in distress', as it does not consider the factors responsible for distress, the actual support required by the lady to come out of distress, and what next.
There are practical difficulties in understanding the diverse situations and factors depriving women from their active participation, expression of their (women's) own aspirations, and in coming out with a perfect solution for remedying gender inequality.
However, this should not disdain us from searching for the best possible solution using available data and intelligence, and research.
A core challenge in making effective policies and programmes is the lack of information on the daily untold chores of women, especially in the fisheries sector, to aid as actionable information for policy makers. The need for developing a gender-inclusive database and prioritising genderbased research is not often properly reflected in the policy document allowing the ignorance to perpetuate. While there is a growing interest in gender-based research, results are often too late or not scalable enough to take a policy decision. In addition, there is no regular socio-economic data reporting/monitoring process in most of the countries and in the BOBP-IGO member countries, as well.
“The 'White Knight' or the
current approach, presupposes what women should
do and provides a generic
solution as it is not aware of the
context. Therefore, it is often
not effective to make a
sustainable impact on women's
participation.”
“ We do not know how much
fisher women receive. Do they
receive the first catch or the
leftover; what do they do with
the catch if they have received
it; how many of them have a
bank account and have full
control over it; their source of
getting information on the
government programmes and
so on.”
When data is available, new insight can be obtained into the nature of gender imbalance. For example, in India, socio-economic data started flowing regularly since the initiation of the quinquennial marine fisheries census in 2005. It shows that while the total employment in the marine fisheries sector has gone down between 2005 and 2016 (last census), despite growth in fish production and trade, the share of women in total employment largely remains the same. At the same time, while women's educational attainment has improved during the period, their job profile largely remains unchanged. The picture is quite contrasting and the underlying questions should be answered before any intervention can be planned.
One possible approach to address the issue concerning neglect of women's empowerment is to take a data-driven comradery approach (DDCA). The DDCA measures provide a macro picture of gender-specific sectoral needs generated through data collection, collation, and analysis. In addition, instead of telling what to do, the system will follow a gradual approach of admitting empathising solution searching joint- decision making. In essence, the comradery approach is a bottom-up participatory approach improved further by allowing the woman to take the role of the decision-maker while expanding her options through data-driven assistance blocks, that can be combined according to one's needs.
The gamut of gender mainstreaming in fisheries goes much beyond the economic empowerment of women. And it also goes beyond the fisheries sector. It is unlikely that real gender mainstreaming can be achieved in the fisheries sector unless the same happens with the rest of the economy. However, this should not be the reason for being laid back but the motivation should be usurped for showing the way forward in achieving the goal of gender mainstreaming in its real sense!