Sanjana Lal, the acting permanent secretary for the Ministry of Fisheries and Forestry, warned on Wednesday that longstanding structural inequalities — including the heavy burden of unpaid care work and unsafe market conditions — are preventing Fijian women from fully participating in the fisheries sector despite their central role in coastal livelihoods.
Lal made the remarks at a conference on environmental law and coastal ecosystems held at the Yatu Lau Conference Room in Suva, an event focused on strengthening the rule of law for coastal environment management. Citing time-use data, she said women shoulder roughly 80 hours per week of unpaid care work compared with 47 hours for men, a disparity she described as a direct barrier to women engaging in income-generating opportunities in fisheries.
“That imbalance directly affects women’s ability to engage in income-generating opportunities within the fisheries sector,” Lal said, stressing that lost time and competing domestic responsibilities reduce women’s capacity to fish, process catch, access training or pursue other commercial activity. Her comments underline a policy concern that addressing fisheries sustainability also requires confronting social and gendered divisions of labour ashore.
Lal also raised pressing safety and access issues for women working in market spaces. “They’re more likely to experience things like sexual harassment in the market,” she said, noting that surveys conducted in markets around Fiji found many women reported experiencing forms of sexual harassment while selling their products. The acting permanent secretary linked these safety concerns to practical limitations on women’s mobility and earning potential.
Beyond time burdens and market safety, Lal highlighted unequal access to key resources that support productive participation in fisheries: fishing gear, loans, technology and membership in decision-making bodies. She said these gaps compound one another, producing deeper structural constraints that simple, visible fixes cannot resolve.
Calling for policy responses that go beyond short-term interventions, Lal argued that effective reforms must target the root causes of exclusion. “We need to address not just visible barriers, but deeper structural challenges embedded within the sector,” she said, framing gender equality as both a social justice issue and a practical necessity for resilient coastal ecosystem management.
Lal’s intervention at the environmental law conference adds a government voice to ongoing discussions about gender, livelihoods and resource governance in Fiji’s coastal communities. By linking unpaid care work and market safety to fisheries participation, she pinpointed areas where cross-sectoral policy — from social protection and policing to credit access and extension services — will be needed if women’s economic contributions are to be sustained and amplified.
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