Marine fisheries census process goes fully digital

Union Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying George Kurian launched the Marine Fisheries Census (MFC)-2025 Household Enumeration and the VYAS – BHARAT and VYAS- SUTRA app in Kochi today. The launch marks a historic step in the fisheries' enumeration process.

Moving entirely from conventional paper-based methods, it is poised to generate the most comprehensive, granular and geo-referenced national database to date, laying a robust foundation for evidence-based planning.

Kurian told stakeholders that the government was actively installing various scientific devices like transponders free of cost for the benefit of the fishermen.

The digital and geo-referenced census is a marked leap from predecessors in 2005, 2010, 2016).

"This means the entire enumeration of nearly 1.2 million fisher households across 5,000 villages and habitations in 13 coastal states and Union Territories, including the Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep, will be fully digital and paperless," Union Fisheries Secretary Abhilaksh Likhi said.

The digital approach, Likhi said, would enable real-time, geo-referenced data collection, eliminating manual errors and significantly accelerating data processing.

He said the operation would be monitored through multi-tier web dashboards and a supervisory app, ensuring real-time progress tracking, data accuracy and accountability across all levels of census management.

Vital data would also be gathered on insurance status, losses or disabilities, specific socio-economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on fisher families and the receipt of benefits from government schemes.

The hallmark of the fifth edition of Marine Fisheries Census will be household-level enumeration of fishers, fishing crafts, gears, and infrastructure across 1,200 landing centres, 50 fishing harbours, jetties, markets and processing plants, with the help of specially designed mobile-based applications.