India launches digital fisheries census

The initiative was launched by the Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Shri George Kurian at the ICAR–Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) in Kochi.

This edition marks a major technological shift as the first fully digitalised data collection in the history of Indian fisheries.

Urging full participation in the massive nationwide exercise, the Minister emphasised the need for fisher to be registered on the National Fisheries Digital Platform. “This is a mandatory requirement to access benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Kisan Samridhi Sah-Yojana,” he said.

“Only fishermen and fish farmers who are registered on the portal will be eligible to receive financial assistance from the central government,” he added, noting that registration could be conveniently completed through common service centres.

During the launch, live field data from Maharashtra and Kerala was displayed, demonstrating real-time enumeration using two specially designed mobile applications – VyAS Bharat and VyAS Sutra – developed by CMFRI.

These tools enable real-time data capture, geo-referencing and instant verification, ensuring transparency, accuracy and efficiency in data flow from field to central servers.

The 45-day nationwide enumeration, running from 3 November to 18 December, will cover over 1.2 million fisher households across 4,000 marine fishing villages in nine coastal states and four union territories.

Coordinated by the Department of Fisheries under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana, the census is led by CMFRI with the Fishery Survey of India as operational partner.

Shri Kurian urged state departments and communities to support the ’Smart Census, Smarter Fisheries’ initiative, adding that the government is also installing transponders and turtle excluder devices free of cost to aid fishermen.