India: Seafarer Jobs Growth whopping 42.3%

The last four years saw an unprecedented growth of 42.3 per cent shipboard jobs for Indian seafarers.

The seafarers employed on ships worldwide increased from 108446 in 2013 to 154349 in 2017.

India now provides 9.35 per cent of the global seafarers and ranks third in the list of the largest seafarer supplying nation to the world maritime industry.

"The Ministry of Shipping has strived to improve employment generation in the Shipping sector during the last four years," said Union Minister of State for Shipping Mansukh Mandaviya.

He further added, "the number of trained active seafarers today is 154,000, of which 4700 are women and as many as 810 are employed in the shipping sector."

The Directorate of Shipping has started issuing the Indian CDC (Continues Discharge Certificate-cum-Seafarers Identity Document) for candidates who have completed the five basic STCW (Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers) courses since January 2018. Prior to this, candidates who were doing the long duration pre-sea courses were issued Indian CDC.

"This initiative of the Directorate has mobilized lot of seafarers to pursue Indian CDC who otherwise were holding CDC for other flags like Panama, Liberia, etc. The ban on opening of the new pre-sea and post-sea institutes has been lifted and various requirements for approval of courses also delinked," said a government press release.

"This has considerably helped in opening of the new maritime training institutes. This shall definitely assist in further increasing the number of Indian seafarers in global market," it added.