摘要：There exists a great deal of direct and indirect employment potential associated with inland wetlands of our country. However this can be implemented only when these are well organised and managed through effective participation of relevant primary and secondary stakeholders. Fishermen constitute the primary stakeholder group on whose capacity and disposition to toil and labour depends the prospect of fishing industry considerably. Their unique efforts in providing night time labour, source of traditional know-how and sense about the quality of pond water and soil are extremely important for its sustainability. Without perceptible improvement in their socio- economic condition, inland fishery development itself will be at stake. Disparate living standard , differential access to income earning capacity and other amenities are likely to generate discontent among fishermen and weaken their motivation to participation in fishing activity. Case study in Burdwan district in West Bengal indicate the generally divergent and poor standard of fishermen in terms of access to basic amenities of life. Ameliorative measures like health insurance, better training and credit facilities, provision of easy access to input , reclamation of hitherto unused wetlands and need based public grants are some of the means that can prevent exodus from the fishing occupation. var currentpos,timer; function initialize() { timer=setInterval("scrollwindow()",10);} function sc(){clearInterval(timer); }function scrollwindow() { currentpos=document.body.scrollTop; window.scroll(0,++currentpos); if (currentpos != document.body.scrollTop) sc();} document.onmousedown=scdocument.ondblclick=initialize SOUMYENDRA KISHORE DATTA AND RUMA KUNDU 256 acquired knowledge about the condition of the pond /tank in which they operate and their relative scarcity in the context of the inland sector, highly makes it imperative that their socio- economic condition be upgraded over time, so that their capacity to provide sustained efforts is maintained. In India development of fishermen is often restricted to the traditional fishing communities near the coastal areas in maritime states while the interest of those associated with inland fishery is relatively neglected. The frequency or regularity of fish catch, its volume and yield of profit from an aquaculture enterprise, efficiency in management, the involvement of the members in the co-operative/ group in the management pattern of an aquaculture pond are likely to have a bearing on the socio-economic status of the fishermen who are primarily engaged in catching fish from the concerned ponds. Disparity in the standard of living, differential access to income earning capacity and other perquisites are likely to give rise to the growth of discontent amongst the relatively indigent fishermen, thus partially weakening their urge to wholeheartedly participate in the activity of fishing (Boyce, 1994). Even their devotion to work may be shaken because of a sense of relative deprivation. However one point that merits mention in this context is that even though a sense of relative deprivation may exist in some fishermen, often they get reconciled to their lot partially because of their relative illiteracy and no alternative skill embodiment and partly because they tend to be sticky to their acquainted atmosphere rather than opting for uncertainties involved in relatively unknown locality. But their brewing discontent may get channelised to their offspring who might deviate from their traditional fishing job. In India, Bengal occupies the topmost position in contributing to inland fish production and for this purpose the state has been offered the national productivity award for consecutive nine years. The district of Burdwan is the biggest one in the state and characterized by the existence of several fishery ponds dispersed in industrial and agricultural belt of the district. Despite increasing importance of inland fishery, several fishery co-operatives/groups are beset with untoward socio-cultural and economic features (Rahim et al., 1994). In many cases these are formed of illiterate/semi literate, indigent fishermen who lack the knowledge of latest fishery technology and proper attitude to fishery development (Chakraborty et al., 2005). This vicious circle is further strengthened by lack of institutional support and finance that hinder their smooth performance. These co-operatives are supposed to play an important role not only for the development of fishery but also for the amelioration of the status of fishing community. Furtherance of the prospect of a fishing enterprise depends in a critical way on the attitude, capability and expectation of the fisherfolk. associated with the co-operatives/groups. There is assumed to exist a spiraling relation between improved status of the fishermen and sustained development of fishery activity (Capistrano et al., 1997) . Of late the co-operatives are striving to put significant efforts to develop the fisher community. Since the immediate impact point of fishery development programmes is the benefit perceived by the fishermen, in order to assess the efficacy of such programmes as well as that of efforts of co- operatives, it is felt doubly imperative to objectively focus (a) on the overall socio-economic status of fishermen in different geographical locations (b) relative level of difference between fishermen at urban and rural areas and (c) asses the degree of dependence of their perceived state of living condition on diverse socio-economic factors. METHODOLOGY In order to have an idea of the socio- economic condition of the fishermen involved in respective fish production units, data have been collected by personal interview method on the basis of a pre-structured questionnaire from different sample ponds in the district covering different locations. Since inland fishery vary in their natural surroundings and environmental aspects, purposive sampling has been adopted to choose the location area and ponds to focus on the socio-economic status of the fishermen as associated with the corresponding diversity of environmental surroundings of the fishery pond. Accordingly 8 ponds have been selected from 5 locations within the district of Burdwan as revealed in table 1. Location 1: Muchipara region in Kanksa block and Ausgram block near Kanksa. This area is located in the industrial belt of the district (on a side of Durgapur town). Here we have selected municipal sewage fed fishery (Khatpukur) and Ausgram culture fishery.
