Livelihood Status and Socio-Economic Condition of Fishermen in Indrapuri Region, Rohtas, Bihar

The current study was an attempt to ascertain the livelihood status and socio-economic condition of fishermen in the Indrapuri region, especially Narari Khurd and Meh villages in Rohtas district and Bihar state. The study was conducted from December 2022 to July 2023. The data were collected through the questionnaire, survey, group discussion and public interview. The finding of this study is that 53.5% of the fishermen belonged to the young age category, from 15 to 30 years, followed by 29.3% in the middle age category and 17.2% in the old age category. Around 69.9% of the fishermen’s primary occupation was fishing, 10.1% were farmers and 20% were boatmen, day laborers and traders. The education status is so bad; 45% of fishermen were illiterate, while 25.2% had completed 5 classes, and 29.8% had metric qualifications, with the majority being young. Furthermore, the report revealed that approximately 34.3% of fishermen’s income and expenditure went towards food, 9.1% towards education, 20.7% towards health and 35.9% towards other expenses. It was found that 3% of house materials were thatched and bamboo, 40% were mud houses, and 27.7% were brick and mud, while 29.3% were brick and concrete of fishermen’s houses. The family size of the fishing community usually consists of small families with less than 5 members (21.5%), medium families with 5 to 8 members (68.5%), and large families with more than 8 members (10%). 60.2% of fishermen use their hand pumps, while 39.8% rely on other sources such as wells and rivers. Daily working hours of fishermen were a maximum of 55.3%; fishermen do work 6 to 7 hours, while the minimum (8.4%) working hour were 4 to 5 hours. The present work has been carried out to find out the current social as well as economic condition of fisher families of two villages, Narari Khurd and Meh village, for the first time here. It concluded that the main obstacles were ignorance, illiteracy, and lack of government support. They were the poorest of the poor in the community, and they have no alternative livelihood options to earn their bread other than fishing in the area.