Government doesn’t neglect

The role of women in fishing villages in developing local economy, the role of early-age education and the role of natural conservation by planting mangrove, together have proven that the participation of women must be put in a strategic position.

Their movement needs to be appreciated by the government by providing additional capital facility for the business they do. The Ministry of Marine and Fisheries, however, denied that the government did not pay any attention to women in fishing villages. “The government doesn’t neglect their presence and even improves their capacity. The ministry’s Human Resources Development in Marine and Fisheries Department (BPS-DM KP) has proved it by organizing trainings to improve their business capacity,” Suseno Sukoyono, BPS­DM KP chief at the Ministry of Marine and Fisheries, said.

The number of participants in the activity, he said, increases every year. A total of 50 people participated in 2008, 119 in 2009, 120 in 2010, 420 in 2011 and 555 in 2012. Those trainings were conducted in various parts of Indonesia.

Training

Suseno explained that BPSDM KP had repeatedly trained women in fishing villages. The last updated number of women in fishing villages already trained by the Human Resources Development in Marine and Fisheries Department (BPSDM KP) for the period of 2008 ­ 2012 was 2,264 people. The number was based on the data received from the Marine and Fisheries Training Center (Puslat KP).
According to the data, the area with the biggest number of women in fishing villages having been trained by BPSDM KP for the period of 2008 ­ 2012 is Tegal, Central Java, with a total of 119 participants,” Suseno said.

Suseno recognized the importance of empowering women in processing the caught fish to increase the women and their families’ economic living standard. “It’s true and it has been done by BPSDM KP by providing trainings to women in fishing villages on how to process fish, while their husbands/fishermen fish in the sea as mentioned in a table above.

Priority Program

Processing caught fish will give additional value and bigger profit compared to just selling fresh fish. It is in line with the KPP priority program on marine and fisheries industrialization, which is a process to change the upstream and downstream production system in efforts to increase additional value, productivity and production scale of marine and fisheries resources, through modernization efforts supported by an integrated policy direction of macroeconomic policies, business and investment system, science and technology and human resources development for people’s welfare,” Suseno said.

What is conducted by BPSDM KP needs to be appreciated. However, it must be ensured that it is implemented on the field, so that various programs, which have been put on papers, can be practically implemented.

This article is the final article on women in fishing industry from a series of two in-depth articles written by Adhitya Himawan of Media Pembaruan and published on 16 May 2013. The article is part of the ILO’s media fellowship programme on gender and employment, jointly conducted in collaboration with the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Jakarta and six selected leading, national mass media. The media fellowship programme was part of the campaign conducted by the ILO through its Access to Employment and Decent Work for Women Project, funded by the Australian Government.