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.