Getting a frame of fishing populace of a country

Census operations have been in existence from time immemorial. Probably General Census which are mostly decennial as in India is one grand exercise which is based on simple conceptualisation. Reach out to every citizen of the country within a specified time interval. The catch points are "individual" and "time period". All other information fall in place smoothly alongside these two pivots. The classic census exercise involves collection of socio-cultural, economic and infrastructural details of persons/ groups of co-existing individuals or families. The greatest strength in this exercise is that there is no ambiguity on who is to be approached. But if the complete enumeration is to cover a certain portion of the population of citizens of a country the spadework becomes huge. As mentioned in the other post, "whom to be considered and contacted to represent the fishing population of a country?" is the first question to be answered.

Another important facet of these exercises is the spotting of the target population. In this context we may have to evolve a strategy targeting the individual as well as his family. Socio- cultural information necessarily happens to be a collation of data on a subject and his/her social grouping (household/ family). A portion of the information is devoted towards assessing towards the combined status of the group (above poverty line/ below poverty line etc). Still within the family individuals will have more than one façade to show. That is the family, at least one member of which is a fisher, can have income from other vocations also. It may be that the individual has taken to fishing as a matter of compulsion than tradition. He or she may not also be the head of the family. Who knows he or she may be the worst off in the family. Information can be collected about them also. But in the hindsight what these figures have to do with the prime objective? If the prime objective is to simply get the number of persons involved in the core activity in the whole country then the mere inclusion of such individual as a count may be with the additional information on his gender and community will fit the bill very cleanly. But if we have to provide information on the individual's economic and social condition vis-a-vis government's welfare dossier, then the whole family has to be projected alongside the individual. Probably there may be scenarios where poor individual from a rich family (?) should not be getting a particular benefit. Another interesting aspect is to trace the economic progression of traditional fisher folks. A simple glance at there infrastructure (including crafts) and the educational status of their family members, this can be easily assessed. This is more interesting if the Census exercise is to be done at regular intervals. But in all these cases, the vexing is issue is how to zero in on them? Whether to focus only their habitats or to focus the crafts in operation is a major poser. As the information has to be first hand the individual has to be contacted or at least his family. Probably the listed fishermen of previous such exercises would be a very good starting point. This issue is of very high importance and sensitivity in countries where access to seas is open, registration of vessels/ crafts is yet to be complete and licensing to fishing is still having the birth pangs.