The Union Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, George Kurian, on Friday launched the Marine Fisheries Census (MFC) 2025 Household Enumeration and the VYAS–BHARAT and VYAS–SUTRA mobile applications at Kochi, marking a complete digital overhaul of the national fisheries enumeration process.
The MFC 2025, described as a historic digital leap, replaces the traditional paper-based census with a fully digital, geo-referenced data collection system. The exercise will cover around 1.2 million fisher households across 5,000 marine fishing villages and habitations in 13 coastal States and Union Territories, including the Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep.
The census will be conducted over 45 days, from November 3 to December 18. The process is being powered by a suite of multilingual Android applications developed by the ICAR–Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), the nodal agency for the census. The VYAS–NAV app will be used for validating fishing villages and harbours, VYAS–BHARAT for household and infrastructure enumeration, and VYAS–SUTRA for real-time supervision and monitoring.
Kurian, addressing stakeholders at the launch, said that the government is providing various scientific devices, such as transponders and turtle excluder devices, free of cost for the benefit of fishermen. He urged fishermen and fish farmers to register on the National Fisheries Development Portal (NFDP) to avail benefits under government schemes.
Ministry said the shift to a digital and geo-referenced system will enhance the accuracy and efficiency of data collection while ensuring real-time supervision through multi-tier web dashboards. The data generated will serve as the evidentiary foundation for evidence-based planning, helping the government design targeted, climate-resilient, and inclusive development programmes for coastal communities.
Preparations for the census have included pre-census workshops and high-level coordination meetings, including the Coastal States Fisheries Meet 2025. A national workshop for final operational strategies and coordination was held at CMFRI, Kochi, on Friday.
Parallel to the census, the Department of Fisheries and CMFRI are introducing drone technology for marine fisheries data collection. Drones have been used to carry out aerial enumeration of fishing crafts during trawl ban periods in major harbours such as Vizag, Kakinada, and Tuticorin on the East Coast, and Mangaluru, Beypore, and Puthiyappa on the West Coast. The aerial data will provide a neutral and verifiable record to support ground-level enumeration.
For the first time, the MFC 2025 will collect expanded socio-economic data, including family income, home ownership, liabilities, sources of credit, and insurance status. It will also document the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the reach of welfare schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) and PM-MKSSY.
The census will also include institutional mapping of Fish Farmer Producer Organisations (FFPOs) and Self-Help Groups (SHGs) to strengthen collectivisation and improve the fisheries value chain.
Fully funded by the Department of Fisheries, Government of India, with CMFRI as the nodal agency and the Fishery Survey of India (FSI) as the operational partner, MFC 2025 is the fifth edition of the national marine fisheries census. With its slogan “Smart Census, Smarter Fisheries,” the initiative aims to provide a robust data-driven foundation for better targeting of welfare schemes, infrastructure development, and community-led growth in the fisheries sector.