[Reader-list] Fisher women Protest Against World Tourism Day

[T Peter]

Fisher women Protest Against World Tourism Day

Hundreds of fisher women under the banner of Theeradesa Mahilavedi, the
women's wing of the Kerala Swatantra Matsya Thozhilali Federation (KSMTF)
protested against the World Tourism Day celebration on 27th September in
frond of the secretariat, Trivandrum.

World Tourism Day is to be observed on 27th September each year by
different themes selected by the General Assembly of UNWTO (United Nations
World Tourism Organization), on recommendation of UNWTO's Executive
Council, to promote awareness among the international community of the
importance of tourism. This year's tourism day's theme was 'Tourism opens
doors for women'.   The Theeradesa Mahilavedi has expressed strong dissent
due to the implications of this effort, in this context when the tourism
industry has already generated a number of negative impacts on women.

The draft Coastal Zone Management Plan prepared by Ministry of Environment
and Forests, which excludes tourism projects from coastal zone
regulations, is testimony to this. The zone demarcations being proposed
will further cut off fisher people's traditional access to the sea and the
coasts. As further stretches of beach are bought by hotel and tourism
lobbies, privatized coasts will mean no place for drying fish, mending
nets, or carrying out all the ancillary activities that provide fisher
women a means of survival

The members of the Theeradesa Mahilavedi have pointed out that the World
Tourism Organisation and various government and intergovernmental
organisations are using this occasion to protect the interests of industry
and celebrating it as one sided and biased manner. These celebrations are
not corresponding the interests of marginalized
communities. While international agencies such as the UNWTO are actively
promoting this year's theme, what the hype obscures is the negative impact
of tourism on women, especially marginalized women through pressure on
natural and other resources, curtailed access to resources, and
vulnerability to sexual and other forms of harassment.
The Theeradesa Mahilavedi has called for the civil society to support the
struggle against the World Tourism Day celebrations, its politics in the
context of the "Tourism
opens doors for women" theme and its negative impacts on women, local
communities, environment and culture. The existing Tourism development has
already resulted in an alarming increase in Sex Tourism, child labor, drug
addition and child abuse.

The fisher women demanded
1)      That the Government of India and various state governments to stop
acquiring further coastal land for tourism development
2)         Immediate monitoring of cultural impact of tourism development
on traditional communities
3)       Immediate rehabilitation of communities displaced by tourism
development, and further,
4)       Immediate steps to be taken to clean up already accumulated
pollution, waste and ecological damage due to tourism.

The protest was led by Elizabath Antony, Freeska Kurishappan, Magline
Peter, Girly John, Everesta Jose and Mereena.