Marine Product Exports and Its Impact on Female Employment: A Case Study from West Bengal

Marine products are one of the most important processed food exports from India and represent an important potential growth area for the Indian economy. Exports of Marine products from India has increased from about US$ 46 million in 1970-71 to more than US$ 1.85 billion in 2006-07 (Figure 1). It is estimated that by 2010, exports of marine products from India will touch US$ 4 billion . USA, Japan, Australia and the European Union are traditional major export markets of India. China and Middle-Eastern countries are perceived as potential big markets for India’s marine exports.

Coastal Indian states like Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and West Bengal are major centers of marine product exports from India. The processing plants for freezing and canning of marine exports are mostly situated in these states. Frozen shrimp is the most important export item in this sector and it accounts for more than 60 percent of India’s total exports of marine products . Shrimp cultivation and exports have generated significant employment in India. According to Bhattacharyya , shrimp cultivation and processing have created direct employment of about 300, 000 people and indirect employment to over 700, 000 in the country. A significant percentage of workers in the marine processing sector are women. Women workers are preferred for processing works like peeling and cleaning of shrimps.

Though India has done well in this sector, there are a number of external issues which have affected this sector. One of the major problems faced by the marine exporters from India came in the form of a ban by EU on these products in 1997. In 1997, the EU imposed ban on the import of Indian fish and fishery products based on the findings of deficiencies in hygiene and phytosanitary conditions in many of the processing units in India. This forced the government to lay down stringent norms for exporters of such products. The government also initiated a major drive to improve the standards of the processing plants in India. This led to a major shake-up in the sector as many of the processing plants could not afford the required investment and closed down. It also led to significant consolidation of the industry. Interestingly, the emphasis on higher standards has also affected the nature of work and the pattern of employment in this sector. This has particularly affected the women workers who are engaged in the processing of shrimp and other marine products. This article puts forward a case study from West Bengal to highlight this.

II. In the southern part of West Bengal, which shares the Indian coastline with the Bay of Bengal, shrimp aquaculture has been growing in importance among farmers. The economy of this region is primarily dependent on agriculture and its allied activities. In most areas of the region, agriculture is primarily dependent on the monsoons and multi-cropping is not a viable option because irrigation by river water or groundwater is not possible due to its salinity. Because of these problems, alternative economic activities like shrimp aquaculture have gained more importance during the past one and half decades. During this period the number of shrimp aquaculture farms increased manifold, primarily converting agricultural land as well as utilizing unproductive low-lying land of the coastal region. Shrimp aquaculture has become an emerging economic activity of the region mainly because the prospect, in terms of income from the activity, is much higher than the same from agriculture. Shrimp aquaculture is pre-dominantly an export-oriented economic activity, although it caters to the domestic demand as well, and the liberal export-orientation of the economy in the new regime in the nineties has resulted in its growth and thereby making it a viable economic option for the rural population. Not only land held by small and marginal farmers, which became economically unviable for sustenance in this set-up, were leased to prospective entrepreneurs for shrimp aquaculture, even the large farmers leased their land for it. The rent received per bigha (0.1338 hectare or 0.3306 acre) of leased land can be up to Rs.11,000 per year. However, on an average, a farmer receives around Rs.7,000 per year and the rent differential depends on the suitability of the  land for shrimp cultivation. In comparison to this, farming, along with all its uncertainties, on a similar stretch of land could at most yield an income of Rs.3,000 in a year in this region. Thus for the farmers, engaging land in this activity not only generates a much higher income stream, but it also minimizes the uncertainty associated with agriculture.

People who were erstwhile engaged in agriculture, before the land was leased to prospective activities like this, got engaged in a host of newer activities in the rural economy. Shrimp aquaculture itself generates varied employment opportunities for the local population. Employment opportunities in shrimp aquaculture may be direct i.e. employment somewhere in the entire logistics of operation of the shrimp aquaculture or can be indirect i.e. newer opportunities created arising out of the needs of this recently emerging activity. This article focuses on gender employment in the entire logistics of operation in this sector- from the shrimp aquaculture farm to the shrimp exporting firm.

Muslim women from below poverty line families significantly constitute the rural female work-force of the region since there is a Muslim predomination in the population profile. In order to supplement the family income, they look for work in the village. These women, who earlier used to work as landless agricultural workers, find gainful employment in these emerging activities of the village economy. This is in broad agreement with recent economic data. Recent economic data on employment based on the 61st Round of the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) survey show that there has been a significant decline in the share of agricultural employment in the rural economy and increase in employment in non-farm activities for rural women. It also shows a sharp increase in rural female work force participation till 2004-05. Employment growth in the recent decade has shown high growth of casual workers among women. This is precisely the kind of employment generated in this sector for rural women.

In shrimp industry, women get employed in two broad areas of operation. Firstly, female labour is often used by the contractors or entrepreneurs of the shrimp aquaculture farm as daily labourer on contractual basis for dredging, cleaning and maintaining the farm. This job requires low skill and women labour is preferred as it is cheaper than male labour. Women are generally paid around Rs. 40-50 for a day’s work – from early morning to mid day. Payment may also be by piecemeal basis i.e. payment after completion of some pre-specified job. Piecemeal jobs fetch higher remuneration as the worker stretches her working hours, sometimes up to 12 hours, to complete the job. All works of this nature are casual and there is no certainty of getting work daily. Mostly women who were landless agricultural labourers in the earlier set-up get employed in this kind of work.

Secondly, women get employed in the processing of shrimps for export. There has been a very interesting phenomenon in this work in recent years. Earlier women used to work for processing under agents, who are generally local village people, commissioned by the shrimp exporting firms for supplying a pre-stipulated amount of processed shrimps to the firm in a year. This work used to take place in the village under the supervision of the agents. The processing of the shrimps would require peeling and making the shrimp headless and packing it in specially designed containers. The job, being extremely labour-intensive, requires a lot of local labour and village women were employed in it as they had better skills in this activity than men. This is because similar kind of work is done by women in households and therefore women have a ‘sociological advantage’ over men in this kind of job.  They used to get paid on an average around Rs.2 to 2.5 per kg of shrimps processed. In this process, each worker could earn on an average around Rs.200-300 in a week. This work was equally casual and uncertain as the one mentioned before as employment depended on the volume of the shrimps to be processed. The volume of the shrimps coming to the market for processing varies as it is dependent on a host of external factors. However, for more than five years the work of processing of shrimps has been shifted out of the village to the shrimp-exporting company premises where it takes place in a regulated set-up. This has happened primarily to meet export quality standards and certification norms set up by the importing countries and thereby reducing the probability of rejection. The export quality norms regarding marine exports has been beefed up in recent years by all large importers and has substantially increased the production cost of the shrimp exporting firms.

The shift of the processing of shrimps to the exporting firms has led to an interesting kind of migration among rural women in this part of the world. Earlier, the agents from these villages supplied semi-processed shrimp for export to firms located in export centers like Kolkata and Namkhana within West Bengal or even to other states like Orissa. However, because of stricter export norms, the processing of shrimps for export is now entirely done in the firm premises under strict supervision and quality control. Higher quality norms also require skilled workers for the job. Women who have traditionally worked as processing workers in the village have developed a skill for the job. To employ these skilled processing workers from the village, the firm now recruits labour agents in the village who organizes this typical kind of migration of women workers. These labour agents are generally women whose job is to contact interested women-workers who are willing to move out of the village in order to work as processing workers in shrimp-exporting firms. She then forms a group of 25-30 persons and leads them to the different companies to work. All transportation expenses are borne by the labour agent. The company pays each women-worker a salary of Rs.2000 per month . Out of this salary, each worker has to pay Rs. 200 to the labour agent. They earn a net salary of Rs.1800, which is much higher than what they used to earn before. The company also provides them with a place to stay and partially subsidizes on the food. The group is brought back once in a month to the village. However, if the destination is far away, like in Orissa, the group is brought back after spending even longer time. For two months in a year, these women-workers do not have any work in the company. During this period they come back to the village and spend time with their family. However, it must be noted that employment of these women-workers by the firms are purely on a casual basis which creates a lot of uncertainties among the workers.

III. This case study show that employment of this kind has helped rural women to augment family income with earnings higher than before but it has not happened without a cost. The migrant women are generally in the age-group of 15-45, out of which a significant proportion are married women. Married migrant women do not take their children along to work and their regular and periodic absence from the family has widespread implications on the well-being of other family members especially children. The family of these migrant women workers suffers the most as the brunt of the cost of her periodic absence from the family is faced by it. This is what we call the ‘sociological cost’ and it has serious implications on not only child rearing and education but also on other family issues.  Apart from this, a recent UNIFEM-UNCTAD study  reveals that the work and living conditions for these casual migrant workers in shrimp exporting firms are very poor and unsatisfactory. The phenomenon of migration from the village being very recent, such long term exposure to unsatisfactory work and living conditions are likely to have health costs for these migrant workers in the near future. Since the employers keep casual employment like this outside the social security net provided to other regular workers, such long term heath impacts can become a serious impediment to their future earning potential.

[Contributed by Niladri Saha (Senior Lecturer, Calcutta University) and Parthapratim Pal (Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta)]