Livelihood Patterns and Socio-economic Conditions of the Fishermen of Kharingcha Baor at Chaugachha Upazilla in Jashore District, Bangladesh

Abstract

A field study was carried out to investigate the livelihood patterns the socio-economic conditions of the small-scale traditional fishermen of Kharingcha baor at Chaugachha upazilla in Jashore, Bangladesh. The survey was conducted on 100 peoples from 70 families of the fishermen in the study area. It was found from the study that 94% fishermen were comprising of males, while 6% were of females. Among them, the majority was Hindus (88%) and the minority was Muslims (12%). During the suvey, the proportion of semi paka houses were documented to be 88%, while kancha were 12%, and all the families had electricity facilities. It was found that 20% of fishermen had no education, 6% had passed SSC-HSC examinations, 14% had passed 6-10 classes and 24% had passed 1-5 classes. It revealed that 84% of fishermen were married and 16% were unmarried. Throughout the study, 33% of the fishermen were found to be dependent on village doctors, 40% on upazilla hospital and 27% on MBBS doctors. Several types of local boats and dingi nouka as well as nets such as tana jal (surrounding net), set bagnet, khapla jal (cast net), thela jal (push net) etc. were used for the harvesting of different fish species (Labeo rohita, Catla catla, Cyprinus carpio, Cirrhinus mrigala, Heteropneustes fossilis, Channa striatus, C. punctatus etc.). Averagely, 35-80 kg fish per day was caught by a group of fishermen using a boat. The majority of the fishers sold their harvested fishes upon the fulfillment of their demands. The monthly mean income of fishermen was around BDT. 5,000-15,000 in the baor area. Among the fishermen, 56% of them were observed to lend money from money lenders and 44% from the NGOs for their fishing-related activities and livelihoods. It revealed from the present findings that the traditional fishermen of Kharingcha baor require more technical, organizational and institutional helps for the improvement of their socioeconomic condition and sustainable livelihood.