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Youth for the Coast is a training programme for early to mid-career practitioners from various fields who intend to work on the various aspects of the ocean and coast in India. The aim is to bring together young people to develop their understanding and extend solidarity to civic action initiatives and organisations in their own capacity. 

Background

Fisheries is an important source of food, nutrition, employment and income in India. The sector provides livelihood to about 16 million fishers and fish farmers at the primary level and almost twice the number along the value chain. Recognising the importance of the sector, an independent Department of Fisheries was created in 2019 to provide sustained and focused attention towards the development of the fisheries sector. The fish production in India has registered an average annual growth rate of more than seven per cent in the recent years. The sector has been one of the major contributors of foreign exchange earnings with India being one of the leading seafood exporting nations in the world. 

In recent years, the number of policy shifts that have taken place in India especially on the environmental front is quite alarming when looked at from the perspective of the natural resource dependent communities. In this context, it is essential that the information for the fishworkers regarding their livelihood and the cost to the environment needs to be percolated to the ground. This makes it essential to build a support group which will be informed, aimed at assisting the fishworkers organizations to build up their perspectives to address the issues of the coast, environment and livelihood through an engagement with the research and policy matters related to the coast and environment.

Objectives

  1. To create a fundamental understanding of ocean and coast as an ecological system that supports livelihoods of people engaged in the small-scale fisheries sector.
  2. To develop an understanding of how the dynamics between ecology, socio-economic and socio-political aspects of the ocean and coast are linked.
  3. To introduce basic history of fisheries development in India and the narrative of struggle from people’s movements to contextualise discussions on present challenges.
  4. To give an overview of how law, policy, and governance of the ocean and coast are structured and are changing under the Blue Economy.

Youth for the Coast is specifically designed for the fishworkers, youth from coastal communities, researchers, media practitioners, interested in engaging with the issues of coast primarily from the nine coastal states from the Western and Eastern Coasts i.e. Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

Team Members

Jones Thomas Spartegus

Jones (he/him) is a doctoral research scholar and fishing community member hailing from Thoothukudi, a coastal town in Tamil Nadu, India. His research interests are in Ocean Civilisation, governance rights of Ocean people, Ocean Peoples’ Historical Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology and Global Power Politics, his Doctoral Research is on “Fishers Rights and Encounters with Disasters”. He is part of the Blue Economy Tribunal and coordinated Conference of Ocean People (C-OP) 2022. He is also the Co-convenor of the Coastal Action Network (CAN), an Advisor to National Fishworkers’ Forum (NFF), member of World Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP), International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC) Working Group on fisheries (SSF WG) and has been part of public action initiatives led by coastal communities to protect their ocean and coast for future generations..\. H. He

Roshini Ross

Roshini (they/them) is a writer from Bangalore and coordinates Youth for the Coast. They have an MA in Sociology from Ambedkar University Delhi and are associated with progressive organisations and collectives in India. They are a South Asia Speaks Fellow, of batch 23′ and is currently working on a book about fishworker affected by disasters. They were also a participant at Youth for the Coast Kolkata (Cohort III). The

Neha Rane

Neha Rane (she/her) is a policy researcher based out of Mumbai. Her interests vary from urban policy, coastal policy, environmental law to biodiversity. She has worked in different parts of India with communities, organisations, government bodies, which has helped her get a good grasp on implementation aspects of policy making. Over the last few years, she has been focusing on Konkan region and working on coastal communities there. Neha was a former Youth for the Coast participant in Goa (Cohort 1).

Pradeep Elangovan

Pradeep (he/him) is trained as a geologist and based out of Tamil Nadu. He worked with POOVULAGIN NANBARGA, an organisation which has been raising their voice against environmental problems for the past 30 years in Tamil Nadu. Currently, he is engaged in a documentation project about Dalits and women brackish water fishers in the state, under the support of Inlaks Shivdasani Fellowship for Social Engagement. He was a former Youth for the Coast participant in West Bengal (Cohort III).

Arun Mohan

Arun (he/him) is a passionate audiovisual documentarian who has been associated with the Media Collective for over 12 years. He has worked extensively with people’s organisations and civic initiatives to provide media support for critical issues. He has very recently completed a film on the issue of fishworkers’ arrests for trespassing on India and Pakistan borders.

A special word of appreciation to Shibi Peter for designing logo and Amit Kumar & Chhavi Parasher for designing website. Shibi Peter can be reached at shibipe[email protected] Amit Kumar & Chhavi Parasher can be reached at [email protected] / [email protected]