Abstract
River fishing is a vital component of the inland fisheries, contributing significantly to the life and livelihood of the millions of fishers. However, they face socioeconomic and environmental challenges such as pollution, inadequate water flow, uncertainty of fish catch and income etc. Hence, the resource-poor fishers adopt livelihood diversification to cope up with the uncertainty and inadequateness of the fisheries as a profession. The study was conducted taking riverine fishers as respondent involving 8 rivers of India. Data were collected from 500 fishermen from 66 villages along the Ganga, Tons, Torsa, Bramhaputra, Kolong and Narmada, Mahi rivers in 2021-2022.
The study showed that the average family size of the fishers was a little above 5 (5.2). The agricultural land holding was only 0.37 acres per household. To 87% of the respondents, fishing was the major occupation, which ranged from 75% in West Bengal and Assam to 89% in Gujarat. 71% of the fisher households had either kachha or semi-pucca houses whereas only 29% of the respondents had pucca houses. Around 80% of the fishers did possess nets and boats. Rest of the fishers hired these for fishing or acted as fishing labours. On an average every fisher house possessed fishing nets worth Rs. 20,044. The fishing in the rivers generated significant employment to the tune of around 20,000 in Assam to 69,000 in Gujarat in the selected stretches of the sampled rivers. To meet the livelihood needs, the fishers also engage themselves in different income generating activities, in addition to fishing in the rivers. As a result, the average number of income generating activities per household was found to be 1.85 which ranged from 1.66 in West Bengal to 2.11 in Assam. Further, it was found that their level of income diversification was quite low. The Simpson’s index of income diversification was 0.41 ranging from 0.30 in West Bengal to 0.53 in Gujarat. No fishermen family in all the states possessed diversification index of more than 0.66. The diversification was found to be more in small/minor rivers. The major constraints reported by the fishers were declining fish catch, pollution, less/no water in the small rivers, invasion of exotics, declining biodiversity. The small scale riverine fisheries need immediate attention of the policy makers to restore and enhance the fish stock, providing sufficient e-flow, and securing the livelihood of the fishers. There is need to develop appropriate strategies to facilitate successful livelihood diversification.
Keywords: Socio-economy, livelihood, Simpson index, fishers, rivers, India