Employment of women in the fisheries sector has existed since time immemorial (Harper et al. 2017). Nowadays, women are more involved in the aquaculture sector than in the fisheries sector contributing to 19% and 12%, respectively FAO (2020). Fish and fish products are an integral part of many cuisines around the world. Women are active in both artisanal and commercial fishery sectors in some regions and even dominating certain activities such as cleaning and marketing. Their activities range from shallow water fishing to waged labour. In some cases, she comes in with pride as a member of her fishing community, sometimes she is pushed by pain and poverty after losing her loved ones, otherwise she is forced to earn for her family as no one else would. Whatever be the cause, her involvement and employment in fisheries will be within the shore such as seining, mending nets, seaweed cultivation, collecting bivalves clinging to the rocks, cleaning and selling fish, drying fish, etc. in the male-oriented fisheries sector. Women casting nets in the sea/ocean is a rarity and even barred in certain communities (Mathews, 1993). These women have been supporting the economyof her house through her involvement in possible areas in the fisheries sector. Be it the west or the east, the role of women is always in the processing or post-harvest particularly during the peak of the herring fishery, atlantic cod fishery, Chakara fishery, etc., and rarely in decision making and exploitation of the resources, as they are given stable or poorly paying jobs (Harper et al. 2017; FAO, 2020). Women take up 58% of the activities in the post-harvest sector and with no differences found in inland regions also. Areas where aquaculture is prevalent, she is assigned to make the feed, mend the nets and bird scare and occasionally sell the produce. On the contrary, the economic, scientific development and increased demand for shell fish, bivalves and molluscs has led to creation of laws, rules and principles on the hygienic handling of fishes reducing the selfemployment opportunities for women in post-harvest handling of fishes particularly in the less developed nations such as Africa and South-East Asia. Aquaculture can help women in running her own enterprise, take her own decisions, and manage the accounts book herself giving her a sense of ownership and power (FAO, 2020). This will help change the gender outlook in traditional fisheries and aquaculture policies and create more opportunities for women globally (Table 1).

Ornamental fish keeping has been a recreational activity for many people but it can also give a financial outcome. So, hobbyists started their own farms at homes that can create employment and livelihood opportunities for other people as well. Subsequently, the ornamental fish sector gained more attention due to high demand and rapid growth of the export market and trade. The total global ornamental fish trade has been estimated to be more than US$ 15 billion (Raja et al. 2019). But, India’s contribution to the global trade is insignificant even though India is blessed in the biodiversity of ornamental fishes with more than 100 indigenous species. There are lacunae in the breeding of indigenous ornamental fishes, which makes India contribute less to the total global ornamental fish market. Many NGOs and institutes provide hands-on training on various aspects such as breeding techniques, information on the feed used, method and frequency of feeding, water exchange particulars, growth rate, fecundity, mortality, hatching rate, marketing particulars to the rural women (Raja et al. 2014). Total ornamental fish production can be increased by the establishment of backyard hatcheries by women SHGs or fisherwomen co-operativesor other organisations. So, it is essential to speed up ornamental fish production with women entrepreneurs in the near future throughout the world.

As in the several other sectors, women have been consistent in pushing her boundaries in the fisheries and aquaculture sector too. When her opportunities were taken away by mechanisation and industrialisation, she was empowering to do something better thereby increasing the standard of her life. Ornamental fish culture is found to be most suitable for women, as this sector has increasing domestic and global demand and its ability to be adapted to small scale and large scale will make this industry a lucrative business option (Goswami, 2011). It has been increasingly attracting the interests of several women who want to make it big in this competitive world (Pandey and Mandal, 2017). In India, central and state governments as well as multiple non-governmental organisations are active in promoting women in the ornamental fish rearing sector. Recently, (PMMSY- Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana) boasts several beneficiary based activities for women in seaweed cultivation and as well as in ornamental fish culture.

The backyard small-scale ornamental fish culture enterprise is relatively stable and is most popular in southern states of India. According to NFDB (National Fisheries Development Board), a backyard unit is involving any house hold or SHG members who have sufficient backyard area, and availability of resources for maintenance of the fishes. The practice of ornamental fish culture is claimed to be a lucrative business by women in villages and cities alike and are generally willing to adopt innovations and technologies considering the economic advantages, Backyard ornamental fish culture enterprise do not add to their drudgery for a women because of its convenience in operation (Shaleesha and Stanley, 2000). For a housewife, it gives a sense of becoming an earning member of the family and a woman working odd jobs to make ends meet, it is an escape from her daily toils and provide an additional income. All the states in India as well as the central and state institutes promote ornamental fish culture among women. It is the unified responsibility of all people to uplift the downtrodden and needy, especially women. In the state level, the fisheries departments, SAUs join hands to implement the schemes and such institutes of notable mention among them are NFDB, KVK, MPEDA, CIFA, CMFRI, CIFE, KUFOS, TNJFU, etc.

The above institutes conduct training programmes on various aspects of ornamental fish culture, breeding, larval rearing, feed management, live feed culture, pond/tank maintenance, fabrication and maintenance of glass aquaria and disease management (Satam et al. 2018). Also, they arrange exposure visits to successful women entrepreneurs because of the concept “seeing is believing”. They are also given classes on the funding opportunities provided by the various financial organisations and their method of funding and repayment. On successful completion, potential and interested candidates are provided with brood fish/ seeds and certain basic necessities to arouse an interest in them. There are also frequent follow-up visits by resource persons to take account of their progress in post-training.

There will be regular trainings in many state run universities in collaboration with the respective fisheries departments/funding agencies. The latest is the inauguration of the school for ornamental fish farmers by ICAR-CIFA in West Bengal. One of the most successful training programme is the ‘Kumbalam’ model in Kerala under the supervision of Dr.T.V.Anna Mercy (Mercy and Kumar, 2014). As there is not much of the reports have published literature, we are briefing about few selected trainings in the following pages.

Women in most backward societies or rural areas are lacking in financial and educational resources and hence they are least aware of their opportunities. The following are the reasons for a women group to implement ornamental fish culture (Mercy and Kumar, 2014).

Even though men hold an upper hand in any new field, the ornamental fish farming is a sector equally advantageous to women as well; because it may be maintained in smaller cement cisterns or small lined backyard ponds in the vicinity of the house itself (Sharma, 2020). Furthermore, it requires less space and skill, thereby reducing the need to allocate specific time for its maintenance and care. It can also be maintained by unskilled people with a few days of training (Ghosh et al. 2003). The ornamental fisheries sector always has the potential to improve the social status of a family by increasing the income of the beneficiaries.

The ornamental fisheries sector is an area that has received much attention in the past and also in the recent days. It has been receiving specific funding for development of new units or up scaling of existing units. Special consideration is given for women as individuals and also for the women co-operative societies and SHGs in various states without much condition on the eligibility criteria (Nune, 2008). The major fund provider is the NFDB (National Fisheries Development Board, Hyderabad), NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and rural Development) and the MPEDA, Kochi (Devi et al. 2016). PMMSY also have many lucrative funding options for anybody interested in ornamental fish culture with the AQUARAINBOW vision-2030 (DoF, 2020). Under PMMSY for development of ornamental and recreational fisheries, ` 30.30 Cr. have been allotted; this is mainly for the creation and promotion of backyard ornamental fish rearing unit in freshwater and marine water areas.

Due to inadequate/stable income in the initial stages, men/farmers cannot afford to take risks. The returns on innovation should be high to offset risk associated with its adoption and the extra labour required. Ornamental fish culture is flourishing as it is realized a hobby and it can become a profitable business as less literate people can be trained in culture techniques to achieve good production at lesser investment when compared to other opportunities (Sharma, 2020). Ornamental fish culture has been ventured among the landless rural women for additional supplementary income (Ninawe and Diwan, 2005). For instance, when the landless women of rural India provided with just simple live bearers, they could able to earn an average of ` 300-500/- in addition to their normal wages from their daily occupation.

Women are always considered a weaker section in our society and hence they face a number of difficulties in all their activities in each field. Some of the most prominent ones are as follows:

Lack of self confidence.

Women as entrepreneurs can also contribute much and increase the national gross productivity. They assist in generating employment opportunities for other women who are in need of help. They can develop a sense of economic independence in their children and other women. Overall, it improves the standard of living of women communities, leading to self-confidence. In addition, it spreads a message of enhanced awareness and sense of achievement among women. Women fit into this particular ornapreneurial avenue owing to their enormous innate patience provided they are trained and considerable effort is required to capture the existing and latent ornapreneurial potential of women in this sector.