This is a very interesting comment on women and fishery. In coastal areas the fishing work seems to be widely divided between men and women in a way that the men are the fishers and the women handle everything after the catch lands. The marketing and business side is handled completely by women. If I am not wrong the example you have given is that of inland fishery. So here also the role of women is coming out strongly. As far as know there is not much being discussed on women and inland fishing practices. Perhaps because the scale is small and scattered it is not considered important enough for discussion. I wonder if there is information on this from other parts of the country. One of the problems with small scale fishing is that of ‘reproduction’, i.e how to make sure that the system is sustainable. Commercial contracts can sometimes be destructive and the system collapses. Does women’s involvement have some kind of positive role in ensuring that the reproduction of the resource is maintained. What are the institutions and practices that produce such result. There is a lot to be searched for and compared between different parts of the country.
