Feminist alliance backs global campaign for fisherwomen’s rights

By A Representative 

The All-India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA) under the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) has expressed strong solidarity with the ongoing struggles of fisherwomen across India and globally, as part of a five-week international campaign that began on November 5 and concludes on December 10. The campaign, led globally by the World Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP) and endorsed in India by the National Forum of Fishworkers (NFF), coincides with the first International Fisherwomen’s Day, observed a year after the India Fisherwomen’s Assembly held in November 2024 in Thiruvananthapuram.

ALIFA stated that the campaign emphasizes interconnected themes including gender rights and freedom from violence, fisher identity, community and customary rights, ecological protection, and recognition of fisher rights as human rights. The Alliance said that fisherwomen’s movements represent decades of resistance against multiple structural forces such as caste, patriarchy, capitalism, and erosion of community control over natural resources.

According to the statement, fisherwomen have historically been central to fisheries-based livelihoods—handling harvesting, processing, selling, coast protection, and sustaining communities during crises—yet remain largely marginalized in policy, representation, and access to rights and resources. ALIFA said that despite their critical role, fisherwomen’s contributions have often been ignored by governments, marine regulatory bodies, and even internal fisher collectives.

The Alliance called for equitable representation of fisherwomen as decision-makers in governing bodies, cooperatives, and institutions impacting their lives, and demanded recognition of women as full rights-holders in laws, policies, and statistics. Additional demands include secure access to coastal and inland waters, a halt to forced land and coastal acquisition, inclusion in disaster and climate compensation frameworks, comprehensive social security including health and insurance benefits, fair trade rights, and community-based conservation led by women. The Alliance also called for bans on destructive aquaculture, deep-sea mining, and coastal militarisation, and condemned industrial and corporate projects that it says threaten coastal communities and ecosystems.

ALIFA criticised state repression of fisher movements and demanded the release of fishers detained in conflicts on international waters. It said that oceans, rivers, and wetlands belong first to communities dependent on them, and that fisherwomen must be recognised as custodians of ecological commons rather than beneficiaries of corporate-driven development agendas.

The statement noted that fisherwomen’s leadership is integral to struggles for food sovereignty, climate justice, and gender equality, and argued that sustainable fisheries cannot be achieved without women’s leadership in decision-making processes. It committed to supporting fisherwomen’s organisations, amplifying their voices, and building wider alliances in defence of natural resources and community rights.

The declaration concluded with a pledge to stand with fisherwomen in their struggle for recognition, representation, rights, and resources.