National Marine Fisheries Census 2025 Launched

• 01 Nov 2025

Why in News?

The Union Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Shri George Kurian, launched the National Marine Fisheries Census (MFC) 2025 at ICAR–Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), Kochi. 

• This marks India’s first fully digitised fisheries census, representing a major stride towards data-driven and technology-enabled marine governance.

Key Points

• About:
  • The National Marine Fisheries Census 2025 is a 45-day nationwide exercise designed to collect comprehensive data on India’s marine fishing sector.
  • It will cover 1.2 million fisher households across 4,000 marine fishing villages in nine coastal States and four Union Territories.
  • The enumeration will be conducted from 3rd November to 18th December, 2025.
  • The initiative is coordinated by the Department of Fisheries (DoF) under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, with CMFRI as the nodal agency and the Fishery Survey of India (FSI) as the operational partner.
• Purpose and Objectives:
  • To create a comprehensive digital database of marine fishing communities, infrastructure, and socio-economic indicators.
  • To modernise fisheries management and improve welfare delivery through verified digital data.
  • To link all fishers with the National Fisheries Digital Platform (NFDP) for streamlined access to government schemes.
  • To facilitate better implementation of Pradhan Mantri Matsya Kisan Samridhi Sah-Yojana (PM-MKSSY) and Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY).
• Digitised and Real-Time Data Collection: For the first time, the Census adopts a fully digital mode, using two dedicated mobile applications developed by CMFRI to ensure accuracy, transparency, and efficiency.

Mobile Application	Core Function	Impact on the Census
VyAS Bharat	Data Capture and Geo-referencing	Used by field staff to collect socio-economic data from 1.2 million fisher households and key statistics. Links each data entry to a specific location through geo-referencing.
VyAS Sutra	Verification and Monitoring	Enables instant validation of field data and provides a centralised platform for live monitoring of the enumeration process across the country.