Progress report for
Bikash Ranjan Rautray
Achievement at a glance
We are working for the Marine Ecosystem at the Coastal belt of Bay of Bengal covering 36 fishermen villages near the Mangalajodi Ecotourism site of Chilika Lake at the Bay of Bengal in the District of Nayagarh in Orissa State. The coast area consists up a number of excellent and significant sites like: Key Biodiversity Areas (One Bird Sanctuary), Important Mammal Areas (IMA), Important Marine Areas (IMA), Fish arrival centers which are the rich resources expanding links to global economy. To save and enrich all these valuable resources and to save the ecosystem of the marine belt and protect the migrated Birds, we are working since last 5 years with the community participation through strong awareness campaigns, forming educative community organizations, creating educated village volunteers, distributing leaflets, posters and providing feed backs at village-level meetings.Challenges faced in implementation
We have not faced any challenge till to-day because of our Community sector partnership and outcome oriented activities.Beneficiaries
As regards to the stakeholder community, priority shall be given on the marine dweller Small Farmers, Marginal Farmers and landless Laborers depending upon the Chilika Lake and the Ocean for their Lively-hood management. The coast line of Orissa is 480.40 kilometers in length and a number of 220 maritime villages/habitations are seen near the Sea-beach where the people absolutely depend on the marine fishing. Out of 220 villages 36 villages are there in the proposed Sea-beach. The people of the marine fisher villages do not have the legal title (RoR) over their home-stead lands. More than 80% of fisher families living in thatched houses are the prime victim of all types of Natural calamities and Disasters. The artisan fishing community is one of the most vulnerable sections in Orissa. But, the socio-economic condition of this community is very precarious that cant be expressed in words. There are about 3,000 active marine fishers having about 1200 boats out of which non-motorized/traditional boats are more than 600. They are very poor, deprived, marginalized and voiceless and being exploited by the fish merchants and middlemen. Though, they strive hard from morning to night in the Sea, the entire benefit goes to the merchants who become millionaires at the cost of these poor people. \r\n\r\nHence, it is apt prioritizing to strengthen the lively-hoods of these Marine dweller Landless Laborers, Small Farmers, Marginal Farmers engaged in fishing profession by working in conjunction with the local community for their lively-hood development. They are also very supportive and very accommodative. On a preliminary contact, a number of families from different villages have given their consent to participate in the implementation of the project as Co-Partners. Moreover, ARASMIN believes on the community participation that contains top ten important values for successful implementation of all projects. \r\n