@By Hemang Palan

Twitter : @hemang_palan

In an exclusive interaction with senior journalist Hemang Palan, Union Minister of State for Ports, Shipping and Waterways of India, Mr Shripad Naik said that the Indian Shipping Ministry will soon launch a 'Sagar Main Sanmaan' awareness campaign to boost the morale of Indian seafarers, and also help maritime stakeholders of India to increase the global share of Indian seafarers.

'Sagar Main Sanmaan' campaign will also provide an equitable playing field for facilitating employment opportunities to Indian women in the seafaring profession and ensure gender parity in the maritime sector,” said Mr Naik.

He added, “The lack of active participation by Indian women in seafaring profession is mainly due to limited knowledge of such an illustrious career opportunity in merchant navy, the lack of proper incentivisation from shipping lines and also, cultural bias. To address this issue, such an awareness campaign planned by Indian government will publicize the success stories of women seafarers and spread information about opportunities in the merchant navy especially amongst female students of India. In addition to this, I am of the view that the ship on-board gender sensitisation should be encouraged, and on boarding buddy programs should be launched.”
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The Minister said that the global share of women seafarers of Indian nationality has increased in the past nine years fortunately. In the year 2014, about 255 women seafarers of Indian nationality served merchant navy fleet. This figure has increased to about 3000 by 2023. However, it is a very small figure - about 0.5% share of the global seafaring population. The prime focus of the Indian government is to increase the global share of Indian seafarers from 12% currently to 20% in the years to come. In the current year 2023, about 2,58,352 Indian seafarers are serving the merchant navy fleet world-wide.