FISHERWOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT: SOME REFLECTIONS FROM KERALA ‘EXPERIENCES’

Kerala, southern fringe of India has different story of development from the rest of Indian states. The implementation of different policies by the government has been resulted in the betterment of different marginalized communities, especially in the case of women empowerment. For women empowerment, state government has initiated may programs with the support of other local bodies including government and non-government organizations like Kudumbashree program, Gender park etc. It has created many opportunities for women to come forward to main stream of the society and engaging in many public activities. This paper is an attempt to look at state sponsored program for fisher women empowerment called ‘Society for Assistance to Fisherwomen’ (SAF), for uplift of fisherwomen, with the support of both secondary material and ground reality. This paper also discusses about development model of Kerala with special focus on women empowerment.


Introduction
Kerala, the southern fringe of Indian sub-continent is very different form the rest of Indian states for its social development indicators, which reflected in living standard of the community. Development Model or development experience 'of Kerala (KMD) has been compared with many other developed' and under developed countries, for example, life expectancy of Keralites is 70 and life expectancy of America 72, and birth rate of America and Kerala is 18 and 16 respectively (Panikar 1979: 1804, Veron 2001. Like many of other Indian states, Kerala was considered as one of the most backward states of the country (Devika 2010:799). Political dominance of both left democratic front (LDF) and united democratic front (UDF) and their regular ruling out from the power resulted in competition among political alliances either to implement or promote programs for developing Http://www.granthaalayah.com ©International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH [141] and improving living condition of people (Steur 2009(Steur : 221, Öktem 2012. In each electoral manifesto, both political alliances tried to highlight and give priority to the community development policies (Sato 2004:292). Apart from this Kerala has socially and politically wellorganized society, stand for their development rights under different political and social organizations which contributes to the state (Nag 1989: 418).
In this paper, I will discuss about the role of development in Upliftment of fisher women who are considered as outlier from development process of the state. For purpose of the analysis, this paper has been divided in to five parts. First part is introduction to current paper. Second part will discuss on how Kerala has been labeled as 'model of development' for the rest of Indian states. Third part will be a glance on women development programs initiated by state government. Fourth part of this paper will be discussed on how fishing community became part of mainstream of the society by the implementation of Society for Assistance to fisherwomen (SAF) at a great level by engaging various income generating activities. Final part of paper will be summary and conclusion with some recommendations.

Methodology
As mentioned earlier, this article is mainly based on primary resources like personal interviews, newspaper reports, government offices. Personal interviews have been conducted during 2015-16 in coastal area of Punthura village in Thiruvanadapuram District -the capital district of state-. Fishing and fishing related activities are main source of income. 94 respondents have interviewed including group interviews. Along with primary data, secondary resources also used in this article like journal article, book etc.

Why Kerala is a Model for Development
Kerala has been called as a -political laboratory of India-1 where many development activities were experimented from the formation of the state by different political alliances for improvements of living conditions of people with the implementation of welfare schemes by minimum expenditure of low per-capita income and maximum utilizing social capital. By the last quarter of 20 th century, Kerala became a model in terms of its development for rest of Indian states and comparable with many developed and developing countries. Development experience of Kerala was a puzzle for policy experts as the improvements in the living standard of Keralites have taken place within low per capita income but without rapid economic growth. It was widely accepted assumption among development experts that development is not possible without economic growth ( Compared to other Indian states, Kerala has unique model for rest in terms of its sustainable development attempts. In a broader sense, sustainability has considered not only on the environmental issues but also focused on improving living standards of people with minimum use of both natural and material resources with low per-capita income. Though Kerala has placed very backward income state than many other states of India, quality of Keralites has been compared with life quality of high-income countries like America and many third world countries (Franke and Chasin 2000).
From the vantage point of regional disparities of the state, south and central parts of Kerala has its place in development process from early 19th century onwards than northern part of Kerala under Travancore and Cochin rulers. Arrival of missionaries and foreign traders to Kerala opened door of knowledge to natives of Travancore and Cochin. 2 They promoted compulsory primary education for all section of society including untouchables which helped to tackle literacy problem of first generation of Kerala and even it created opportunities of government jobs even for lower section of communities as well (Kannan and Vijayamohanan 2004:32). Under Travancore dynasty, in 1901 total number of school was more than three thousand. They promoted not only government school but also allowed grants for private school. So, various christen groups and other social groups established schools in southern part of Kerala during 19th century, even they opened special school for girls (Tharakan 1984 Like elsewhere in India, Kerala also witnessed that socially promoted customs and practices on the basis of social hierarchies worked as great enemies of social development (Ramachandran 2000:100). But Keralites had broken up these social barriers with massive social actions. Social movements in Kerala during the period of 1920's and 1930's played momentous role in elating living standards of peoples. Similar to other part of the country, Social movements in Kerala during early 20 th century was mainly against social evils especially related to women rights like ban of widow remarriages, sati and lack of educational opportunities for them (Manmathan 2013). Matrilineal tradition of state played a crucial role in balancing gender gap in state as women headed family was very common in Kerala among Nayar community and even among Ezhava community (Alexander 2000:152, Kannan 2000. In short, in terms of social development indicators, Kerala has progressive improvements in comparison to rest of Indian states and many developed countries. Political freedom and social opportunities of state in terms of educational access and public health facilities helped the state to be a model of development (Sen 2000: 44).

Empowering Women: A Kerala Experiences
Kerala has a successful history of community empowerments, especially for women by implementing various flagship programs introduced by both government and non-governmental organizations. Kerala has taken historical footstep by introducing the concept of 'Gender Park' under initiatives of department of social justice of the state government to bring together state, academicians and civil society in a platform to address gender related issues. It aims to generate space for women to come forward to mainstream of society by providing both incomegenerating activities and skill oriented training programs like opening small business ventures, She -Taxi is one of the important initiatives of Gender Park. 5 Even there are many women empowerment programs which has been discussed some of them above among these program 'Kudumbashree' program became more popular and it became a turning point in the history of the state. 6 Kudumbashree program aimed for eradication of poverty with the participation of women across the state and many women came to mainstream of community (

Fisherwomen in Development: Reflection from Kerala 'Experience'
Someone may ask if there is successful history of Kudumbashree program they why SAF? Even though Kerala has successful impact of women empowerment by initiatives of Kudumbashree program, it has criticized for it exclusionary pattern of project implementations (Shihabudheen 2013:16). People from certain community were not able enjoy benefits these group activities because of their existing social conditions and it also reflected in allocation of financial support from government financial institutions and faced discrimination from the society in the cases of distributions of profits (Williams, et al. 2011(Williams, et al. :1278. Fishing communities are one of among these groups; they were not able to enjoy fruits of these projects at greater level according to geographical conditions of this community. Living at the fringe of geographical setting with the ownership of small amount of the land and lack of educational attainments and social positions pushed them from developmental activities of the state, they were considered as outlier from development of the state (Kurien 2000:178). Many Projects, which implemented through Kudumbashree programs was not applicable in coastal areas due to lack of community interest to mingle with other communities and lack of skill oriented women form fishing communities. 10 implementation of various projects to enhance the income generation by improving livelihood and by providing new collective activities, like promoting and developing new micro enterprises, establishments of new common infrastructure facilities like community training centers, common production centers and crafting marketing supports. 13 More than 89 cores have spent under these projects through various policies like Tsunami Rehabilitation Program (TRP) with the support of Asian Development Bank, Tsunami Emergency Assistance Program (TEAP) and Prime Minister National Relief Fund (PMNRF). More than 89 cores have spent under these projects through various policies like Tsunami Rehabilitation Program (TRP) with the support of Asian Development Bank, Tsunami Emergency Assistance Program (TEAP) and Prime Minister National Relief Fund (PMNRF). Among this, projects of Theeramythri has spread and done very appreciable footsteps for his grass root level programs. 14 As part of skill Development of fishing community, SAF has started training institution called "fishing school" in Alappuzha district of Kerala and some more school will be inaugurated in different district of Kerala. 15

SAF Projects and its Implementation
As discussed earlier, SAF is working under the rules and regulations from the fisheries department of state government. It has great manpower from government level to community level. The project of SAF will implemented through these working patterns (see chart 1. As discussed earlier, among SAF projects, Theeramythri is one of the important project which aims to encourage alternative livelihood options for fishing community by providing economic assistance to start new micro enterprises. The main objective of this mission is to promote integrated sustainable development by training them to be engaging in other than fishing activities, which help them to secure their economic condition of fishing community. Now this project has been very popular in coastal villages of Kerala, it has a great impact in everyday life of fisher folks than other project like Kudumbashree program. 16

Functionalities of SAF
Like Kudumbashree program, activities of SAF is based on Self-help Groups (SHG). Each group is consisting of 7 to 120 members and average group members are 8 to11members. As indicated earlier Each group (women activity group) are organized by under the guidance Theeramythri Management Council (TMC) including local representative of Panchayat or municipal governing body. (Department of Kerala Fisheries). Activities of each groups are coordinated by a leader who are selected by group members. There is no certain criteria or eligibility for selecting group leaders. Generally, they are very active and interested in keeping relation with others. 17 Annually all groups are re-organized. Formation of groups are based on the interest or based on their skills like garments, production centers and supermarkets etc. accordingly by the collaboration of different public and private agencies government are organizing various training programs for representatives of different SAF members.

Economic and Social Impact
At large level, economically this project has benefited more than ten thousand costal line families through supporting around two thousand five hundred micro enterprises (Integrated Rural Technology Center). During my filed works, the Respondents were very happy to share positive changes in their everyday life after participating in SAF activities. Economically they are empowered in many ways, (see graph 1.1) Graph No.1.1: source: filed work The graph clearly shows, how SAF has been effected a community in terms of their economic activities. 30 percentage of respondents are stated to save income from their wages, which has been support for them to survive during trawling times, during scarcity of fish and all means of income from the side of male member end for a while SAF members are taking care for house hold expenditures. Earlier during the time of trawling, fishing families depends for daily survive was on public financial systems including public and private bank based on the interest which lost economic stability of fishing community. 19 Moreover this, they linked to private or national financial systems like banks and co-operative societies.
Along this economic impact in community it has effected social life of fishing community. As a community living at the trip of geographical location and their nature of job somehow they were socially discriminated by other community. Other community were not willing to build social relation and they have felling of insecurity from fishing community. 20 But, after implementation of there is tragic change in social atmosphere of fishing community. Respondents says, various training and skill development programs helped them to come out form 'community' circle and 19 Interview with Soumya, Leader SHG. Interviewed on 15/10/2015. 20 Interview with A.J vijayan, Social worker. interviewed on 15/10/2015. This graph shows impact of SAF in social life of fisherwomen. 44 percentage of respondents have improved life standard because of increasing economic profile of family members. They are very happy to say that after joining in SAF activities, they are invited in join public meetings and they became part of political alliances. Political participation of fisherwomen helped them to discuss in front of other community and seek solutions. Now, there are many women wings among fishing community, which are affiliated with different political alliances including United Democratic Front (UDF), Left Democratic Front (LDF) and National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Political participation of fisherwomen played a major role preventing exploitations form other community members. 21 By being part of different projects of SAF, they should attend many training programs in different places. at a great extent, it helped to communicate with other people from different social and political backgrounds. It helped them to build up personal relations and vast their social networks. In short along with economic empowerment of fisherwomen, SAF has acted as medium for social empowerment of fisherwomen.

Conclusion
This paper was an attempt to look at political, economic and social impact of Society for assistance to fisherwomen project. At a great level, it highly involved in Upliftment of very backward community in the state. Many of development project were lapsed for them because the geographical and occupation nature of community. But, after formation of SAF social and economic profile of fishing community has been increased through implementation of different income generating activities in the coastal areas of state. Engaging women in different professions like food producing sector, supermarkets, fish drying units, helped community to 21 Interviewed Maglin Peter, interview date. 14/10/2015. increase income and leading standard living conditions. Their experiences with other community make them aware about the importance of education motivated them to educate their children.
Many respondents have criticized involvement of local political biasness in recruiting of project officers. They are appointing project officer on the basis political interest without concerning his qualifications. In many cases, political affiliations of officer have caused for discriminations in approval of projects and allocation of subsidies. In Highly market competitions in terms of productions, quality, export and import many stakeholders are questioning the survival of SAF products with the limited number of products and its quality.
Notes: Earlier version of this paper were presented at the school of social sciences, central university of Gujrat