Diglipur Oct. 14: A one day consultation meeting was organised in Diglipur for members of marine fishing communities of North & Middle Andaman districts The consultation was carried out as part of the drafting process of a National Plan of Action for Securing Sustainable Small Scale Fisheries (NPOA-SSF Marine) in India, and similar consultations are being coordinated across all coastal states and the islands by a consortium of fisher organisations and associations, with the support of Bay of Bengal Programme Inter-Governmental Organisation (BOBP-IGO) and the Union Department of Fisheries.
The NPOA-SSF is derived from the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries (the SSF Guidelines) developed by FAO. It is the first international instrument devoted to small-scale fisheries and securing the rights and livelihoods of small-scale fishers (SSF) and fish workers. The guidelines acted as a guiding post for India’s National Policy on Marine Fisheries, 2017. In a high-level BoBp meeting held in February 2025, Bangladesh, India, Maldives and Sri Lanka decided to prepare a National Plan of Action focused on small-scale fisheries to put these guidelines into practice.
The consultation meeting sought fishers’ inputs on defining small-scale fishers in India and the draft framework prepared by a National Task Force constituted by the Union Department of Fisheries. The discussions covered a wide range of topics including tenure and access to resources, sustainable resource management, social development and decent work, gender equality, value chains and trade, disaster risk and climate change, and the institutional arrangements that hold these together. The outcome of these consultations will be consolidated and integrated into the NPOA-SSF, and a formal NPOA-SSF will be released on World Fisheries Day: 21 November 2026.
Fishers highlighted the need to secure tenure rights of small-scale marine fishers on near-shore fisheries, particularly demanding stringent penalties for trawlers and ring seiners fishing in fishing grounds exclusively designated for small-scale fishers. In addition, they expressed concerns over resource decline and the need for improved monitoring and management of resources. The fishers demanded the need for price transparency and better benefit-sharing systems. They expressed the need to facilitate better representation of fisher communities in decision-making processes. Women participants expressed the need for their representation in leadership roles, which can be made possible through financial support. They also expressed the need for better facilities, like having access to drinking water at the harbour, thereby reducing the need to carry heavy cans of water from their homes. The fishers also mentioned the need to provide ample compensation for SSF during lean and ban periods.
The consultation meeting for North and Middle Andaman was held at Subhash gram panchayat Hall in Diglipur on 13th October 2026 with the support of the Department of Fisheries, A & N Islands and Subhash gram panchayat. The consultation meeting was facilitated by Dakshin Foundation and National Federation of Small-scale Fishworkers (NFSF) resource persons. Around 35 fisher representatives, including women fishworkers and fish vendors from different fishing villages like Durgapur, Kishorinagar, Talbagan, Mayabunder, Webi and Betapur, participated in the consultation meeting. They represented the diverse fishing communities of North & Middle Andaman, such as Telugu, Bengali, Karen and Ranchi. Following this district-level consultation, a state-level stakeholder consultation will be held on 30th October in South Andaman.