Women remain marginalised in fisheries in Trincomalee

While there are discrepancies, hegemonies, racism and marginalisation of various castes of people around the country, the fisheries industry in Trincomalee faces the situation on a much larger scale. There is lack of recognition and inclusion of women in fishing-related decision-making and fisheries management positions.

Last week the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA) conducted its 57th open forum at the Sri Lanka Foundation in Colombo with the topic being, ‘Even fish have an ethnicity’, a Ph. D research study carried out by Gayathri Lokuge, a senior professional at CEPA in the coastal Trincomalee.

During the presentation Ms. Lokuge stated, globally studies have established the contribution of women to the fisheries sector with 19 per cent of people engaged in fishing being women. “There is lack of recognition and inclusion of women in fisheries-related, decision-making and fisheries management positions,” she added.

In Trincomalee there is a lack of women representation at the community level. Only 159 women are engaged in the inland fisheries sector in Trincomalee, she noted while stressing that there is no data disaggregated by sex for the marine sector.

Elaborating on the structural inequalities, she said, “In the case of a Sinhala woman they are not involved in fishing in Trincomalee. Muslim women take fishing as a traditional job and continue for generations from the grandmother in the family. Tamil women only share the caught fish within their caste in Periyappadu in Trincomalee”.

Stressing on the masculinities and marginalisations, she mentioned that there were Tamil and Muslim women earlier in the old wholesale fish market, according to a Muslim fisherman. “There were 12 stalls for Tamils and three stalls for Muslims. After the war ended all of them left. Now all the fisheries women are Sinhalese and they don’t allow Tamils to do business there,” she said quoting fishermen as her source.

She pointed out that livelihoods are embedded in social, political and cultural worlds of men and women. A uni- dimen- sional understanding of identity is insufficient to explain marginalisations and social tensions. Men and women are marginalised at the intersection of different identity categories. There is need to understand power and positionality as a relational dimension. They are not passive victims of structural forces, noted Ms. Lokuge.

According to the government draft on fisheries and aquaculture it is clearly stated that the government will assist women in the fisheries community to set up micro business enterprises and promote equal opportunities for women’s participation in the activities of the sector. She pointed out that the government needs to recognize women’s diverse contribution to the fisheries sector in policy and practice, base policy on economic activities such as fishing with an understanding of the social and structural inequalities, not just men and women but other social categories. The government should also provide support to strengthen the economic activities of fisheries women within wider issues of stock depletion and climate related vulnerabilities, she noted.