Mother Sea—an ancient source of life and a new frontier for compassionate action. Across the world, seaweed cultivation is emerging as a powerful nature-based solution for food security, sustainable agriculture, and climate resilience. For women in India’s coastal communities, it also offers a secure pathway to earn for their families while safeguarding the ocean that sustains them.

In 2023, Amrita University’s Center for Women’s Empowerment & Gender Equality (CWEGE) launched a new coastal initiative with a mission to empower rural women in the Rameswaram District, Tamil Nadu, through sustainable, nature-based marine livelihoods. 

Amma teaches that humanity and nature are not separate. This project embodies her vision by strengthening both coastal ecosystems and the communities who depend on them. Today, it is active across nine coastal villages in Tamil Nadu, and expanding to Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, training women as leaders of sustainable aquaculture and guardians of the marine environment.

For the women, this work represents a profound personal transformation. By local tradition, women did not enter the sea and many were afraid of water. With training, safety equipment, and confidence-building activities, they courageously stepped into the ocean. 

Overcoming their fears, the women are now earning independently for their families. One of the farmers shared, “Before, we used to help our husbands. Now, they help us.”

With support from ESRI, Transworld, and the Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme (GEF SGP) in collaboration with UNDP, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and TERI, the initiative has grown into a pioneering, women-led model for sustainable aquaculture, marine ecosystem restoration, and climate resilience.