Women and Wetlands of West Bengal:Role and Relationships

Abstract

West Bengal is rich with natural and man-made wetlands, both freshwater and brackish water. Total wetland area of the state has been estimated at 10.49 lakh ha (freshwater area: 5.89 lakh ha, estuarine area: 2.5 lakh ha and brackish water area: 2.1 lakh ha), excluding paddy fields. Amongst these ecological types, freshwater wetlands, such as, pond, pool, beel, baor, haur, jala, doba, daha, dighi, sagar, sayer, etc., are distributed widely all over West Bengal. And amongst these freshwater wetlands, womenfolk are especially concerned with smaller water bodies, shallow marshes and lowland depressions like dobas, jheels, jalas, paddy fields and roadside nullahs those offer suitable sites for fishing small indigenous fishes and shrimps, and also for collecting edible freshwater snails, mussels and crabs. Rural women regularly depend on these wetlands for collecting edible plant food materials for domestic consumption as well as ethnomedicinal plants for cure of various ailments. The collection of aquatic animal resources, viz., weed fishes, crustaceans and molluscs, and edible and commercially important plant species naturally grown in West Bengal wetlands are enlisted, indicating their usage and importance. It has further been noticed that the role of rural womenfolk in fishing and collecting aquatic resources are intimate, deep rooted and deeply dependent. The relationships of rural womenfolk with wetlands are highlighted in this communication along with necessity for awareness generation to protect these wetlands from natural shrinkage, growing reclamation and pesticide pollution.