Learn, Act and Reflect: Coastal Grassroots Fellowship for women set to start in Palk Bay

by Thisam Mahsana OK

Last December a team from Dakshin sailed to the coast of Palk Bay and reached Ramnad district in Tamil Nadu. The wonders Ramnad offered to us were not only the aesthetic vibes of Rameswaram city and the tasty palm jaggery but also the mesmerizing marine resources and a vibrant community of fisher people who are engaged in different lines of fisheries activities. The diversity of livelihood activities  includes wild capture fisheries such as shell-based octopus fishing, mural fishing and the traditional trawlers known as thallumadi, as well as small-scale culture fisheries such as seaweed and  cage fishing. 

Within the team, I am in charge of coordinating the Coastal Grassroots Fellowship (CGF) which is a nascent initiative of Dakshin, designed and being implemented for women from fishing communities to nurture their leadership qualities and to help them work more holistically for their communities and ecosystems. Previously Dakshin has conducted Coastal Grassroots Fellowships in Ganjam (Odisha) and Nagapattinam (Tamil Nadu) and the experiences we had, and the feedback we received helped prepare us for a second cohort of CGF fellows here in Ramnad.

We learnt several lessons from our experiences in the previous year of piloting the fellowship. A key learning was the importance of creating a regular communication channel between the fellows and local community leadership. A second idea was to create local mentor ecosystems for fellows, consisting of women leaders from the fishing community and other local and accessible experts in the region. For the new batch of the Fellowship, we decided to incorporate these aspects. 

The CGF programme for Palk Bay has decided to integrate the local context of the region such as the presence of ecologically and economically important coastal commons, diversified livelihood activities of the region and the question of waste, especially plastics in the area. Rather than focusing only on skill development, we decided to give equal weightage to Learning, Acting and Reflecting. Fellows will engage in active programmatic work such as common mapping and waste tours with the Dakshin team and its partners,  and reflect through mentorship programmes, and journal keeping.

I began fellowship activities by consulting key fisher leaders and social activists in the region from small-scale fishing groups to advise on the design of the fellowship. The idea of a capacity-building fellowship for women from coastal communities was welcomed and reflects the need for able community spokespersons who can take up the cause of small-scale fishers.  

Now we are moving towards the selection of CGF fellows and by March 2023 a new batch will be onboard!