SHM Shipcare Celebrates ‘Women in Maritime’ – CWIM 2019 on the occasion of ‘World Maritime Day 2019’

by Suman Gupta

Theme for this year is to focus on ‘Empowering Women in the Maritime Community’

Stressing the need for increasing participation of women seafarers in maritime

Mumbai, September, 2019: SHM Shipcare, leading manufacturer of safety & survival systems for Indian Navy, Merchant Navy, Oil & Gas in the country, organised “Celebrating Women in Maritime” – CWIM2019 on the occasion of ‘World Maritime Day” with a vision to honour the contribution of women seafarers to this fraternity and motivate young women to take up seafaring as their career.

‘Empowering Women in the Maritime Community’ is theme for World Maritime Day, 2019. This provides SHM, an opportunity to raise awareness about gender parity in Maritime and other allied sectors.

The event witnessed the presence of dignitaries like Mr. Amitabh Kumar (IRS), Director General of Shipping, Mrs. HK Joshi, Director (Finance), SCI, Mr. Suresh Jandial, Executive Director ONGC, Mr. David Birwadkar – VP Great Eastern Shipping, Capt. Raj Razdan – Provost – Tolani Maritime Institute, Capt. Suneha Gadpande, Seasoned Seafarer and Ms. Sanndhya Pillai – Maritime Lawyer.  The panel tabled a healthy discussion around the idea of ‘Making seafaring accessible to Women’ and concrete ideas emerged from the same.

According to IMO, today, women represent only 2% of the world’s 1.2 million seafarers and 94% of the female seafarers are working in the cruise industry. The maritime industry has been traditionally male-centric. This year the IMO has made it their prime mission in line with the UN SDG 5 of Gender Equality, to bring in more inclusivity in the fraternity from a socio-cultural point of view.

Commenting on the occasion, Mr. Saifuddin H. Hajee, Chairman, SHM Group of Companies said that, “We are extremely delighted to organize this event where we are celebrating women in maritime. Empowering women fuels thriving economies across the world, spurs growth and development and benefits everyone working in the global maritime community in the drive towards safe, secure, clean and sustainable shipping. We are proud to say that 20% of our workforce is women.”

Commenting on the occasion, Mr. Amitabh Kumar, Directorate General of Shipping said that, “In 1990’s women’s participation in employment was 40% which in 2017 went down to 26% and further decreasing. If the work force is diverse with women, overall productivity of the company increases.  There is a need to attract more women for shipping industry. Globally, around 2% women are in maritime industry and in India it is less than 1%.

On the occasion of World Maritime Day, our first strategy should be to encourage women to join maritime industry. Then manage to get them to training institutes and retain them by providing on-the-job training. Going further, the seafarers should be supported during breaks in their career like maternity, by providing them with alternative career options like ship managers, lawyers or recruiters.”

About SHM Shipcare:SHM Shipcare Group, incorporated in 2001, is a leading player in quality marine safety and survival systems. The company has a network spanning over 11 port cities along the Indian coast and across coasts of Dubai, Malaysia, Shanghai, Singapore and Colombo. The company provides a one-stop solution for safety and survival products and also provides services and ensures quality solutions. The company has a comprehensive infrastructure for manufacturing, supplying, servicing & repairing of products spread over 2,00,000 sq. ft. of warehousing and workshop facilities). SHM Shipcare enables their customers with the freedom to operate, trade, travel, explore, innovate and excel. https://www.shmgroup.com/