Women in Fisheries:Navigating Spaces, Challenging Norms, Shaping the Future
Women in Fisheries play a significant and multi-dimensional role that include livelihood, household, reproductive, and the community which is associated with different spaces – the home, the sea, the shore, coastal waters, and the markets. They especially dominate the Fisheries and their supply and value chain. But this remains unacknowledged by the state who misrepresents and misrecognizes women fishers to be contributing only to sustaining household nutritional and income security of their families. This battle for recognition by women fishers and fisherwomen is multi-fold.
Through our lens, we invite you to join us in recognizing, celebrating, and advocating for the empowerment of women in fisheries.
OUR WAYS OF LIFE NEAR THE SEA : THEN AND NOW
A two-day workshop was held to discuss women’s role in fisheries. This was also done to help nurture women leadership within the community. Within the workshop, ways of life from the different coastal states of India came alive with the sharing of their stories, struggles, milestones, hopes and anticipations. This poster is an attempt to capture and illustrate their 'way of life' and also the historical associations women have had in their oceanic life. For a higher quality image, please click here
Lets stand up for the ocean // theme song of the Conference of the Ocean People
The Ocean Song was the theme song for the Conference of the Ocean People- a coming together of fishing communities from across the world. The conference was held to demand the attention of international conferences which create policies for the ocean without consultation with the ocean people.
हमें मौका तो दो
Delhi Young Artists Forum (DYAF) initially started as a platform for young people to express the changes and trauma of resettlement that they had experienced, through creative mediums such as theatre and songs. The name evolved over the belief of the initiating group, that every child has an artist in him/her and the ability to nurture such skills, by giving their work prominence, could help them achieve great heights. Over the last ten years, DYAF's work has evolved into a community-run programme, involving over 1300 young people directly focussing on the issues of the girl child and the women. However, over the years, DYAF’s spread and initiatives can boldly claim that its outreach has reached young girls and women in most parts of the two major rehabilitation colonies of the city of Delhi namely Bawana and Bhalaswa.
This is a small poem written by the girls in one of the workshops highlighting the need for opportunities for the girl children to create their own identities as opposed to the ones bestowed upon them from birth.
BLUE ECONOMY PODCAST SERIES
Why is the oceanic Blue Economy becoming the focal point of optimization of resources for driving World Economy? How can the oceans be resilient to the rising intensity of commercial human interests? How long can the oceans continue to be the sink in addressing climate crisis? How would commercializing oceans impact marine life, life along the coasts and livelihood patterns associated with them? These are some of the questions that have cursorily been taken up in this podcast series on Blue Economy. The attempt is to introduce, albeit briefly point out the nuances associated with Blue Economy, be it from the point of view of its impacts on environment & ecology, defense & security, growth-led developmental modeling (including maritime trade & commerce), or even safeguarding rights of those in direct line of impact with such an economic paradigm.
Savita Vijaykumar and Gargi Adhikari of The Research Collective in conversation with Himanshu Damle, a Delhi-based analyst with Public Finance Public Accountability Collective (PFPAC). Some of his professional interests are financialization of natural resources, Blue Economy, and geopolitics.
Please click here for the podcast series.
bloody women
Bloody women is a film made on the menstrual taboos in Himachal Pradesh. The film was shot and completed over an year guided by senior filmmaker Amudhan RP. It focused upon the practice of keeping menstruating women in isolation during their periods. This has been an age old practice and has been followed unquestioned till even today in many of the villages of Himachal Pradesh. The film was made in 2017.
"We are the Ocean We are the People" // theme song of WFFP 7th General Assembly
"We are the Ocean, We are the People" was the theme song for the 7th General Assembly of World Forum of Fisher Peoples(WFFP) which took place in Delhi from 15th-21st November 2017 in New Delhi, India. WFFP is an international body of fisherpeople and represents more than 10 million fisher people from across the world. For more details, please visit www.worldfishers.org.
The conference was attended by representatives across the world apart from the coastal and inland fisher people from India. The conference closed with celebrations on the World Fisheries Day.
OccupyUGC & WTO-GATS // To Study or to Not be Able to Study
India brought the Right to Education for free and compulsory education for children between the ages of 6 and 14. Despite the innumerable social challenges, many students are able to make it to higher education through no small efforts of their and their families determination and toil. But the challenges from there on are not less. Late 2015, many students were protesting in front of the UGC office in Delhi against the move to end the Non-NET fellowships for research students. The World Trade Organisation's Nairobi Conference concluded on 18th December, 2015. Opening the Higher Education sector to international private players was part of trade negotiations between India and 161 other member nations. This video looks at what connects these events in the context of the future of India's Higher Education.
DEFIANT SOUNDSCAPES
Defiant Soundscapes is an attempt at documenting the rich cultural heritage and people’s voices from the interiors of India. The first in the series is of Dynamic Action - a cultural collective based in central Kerala who have worked tirelessly since the early 70s to research, document and archive over 500 folk and people's songs. These songs placed the challenges of humanity with relation to that of the rivers, forest, oceans and the climate. These holistic visions of development is central to the awareness building programmes of any kind. The documentation of these songs also hopes to initiate conversations to understand the context and origins of these expressions and thereby understand their contemporary usage.
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NARMADA BACHAO ANDOLAN 30 YEARS
The Narmada Bachao Andolan, a people's movement that rose in 1985 against the Sardar Sarovar Project marks its 30th year of existence and struggle in 2015. As one of the most iconic struggles in post-independence India, the NBA has played a crucial role in questioning an unsustainable vision of the future that is advanced at the expense of communities, habitat and the environment. The 30 years of struggle brings with it both a sobering note and a call for celebration of the peoples’ will to resist and overcome.
Birsa Shahadat Diwas
Birsa Shahadat Diwas, is celebrated all over Jharkhand in remembrance of Adivasi leader Birsa Munda who led a revolt against the British Government and the money lenders because of their land grab and taxation policies. This revolt led to the passing of the Chota Nagpur Tenancy Act (1908) by the British which restricted the sale and transfer of adivasi land to non—adivasis.
More than a century later and after 8 years of the passing of the Forest Rights Act(FRA) which recognises the historical injustice done to and guarantees rights to forest dependent communities, this village in Jharkhand is on the brink of displacement due to mining.
ELECTIONS 2015: REFLECTIONS FROM THE CITY
This video was recorded over 5 nights leading up to the Delhi elections 2015 and the morning following the election results. Traversing through the thin lanes, tall buildings and the busy markets, this is an attempt to bring to fore the astute, conflicted and entirely candid reactions of Delhi’s residents, especially of those from the working class who have migrated into the city in search for greener pastures. This video is a research exercise to understand the everyday life of a worker in a city, their aspirations, expectations, challenges and thoughts about the world around them.
BHOPAL 30 YEARS
Five women survivors of the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal - Premlata, Vishnu Bai, KasturiBai, Shehazadi Bee and Kamla Bai start their fast in New Delhi leading a protest by thousand more women affected by the disaster. Amidst the simultaneous hustle and quiet of India Gate's gardens, these women share stories on their lives and struggles.
Banner photo credit @Soumik Mukherjee