The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) organized a National Workshop towards developing an implementation plan for India’s 2018 (Draft) National Policy on Inland Fisheries and Aquaculture (NIFAP). The workshop was held in Kolkata on September 6th and 7th, 2019, with the support of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The two-day workshop, aimed at improving inland fisheries governance by adapting the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (the SSF Guidelines),brought together 80 participants from 16 states in India. Fishworkers and their organizations from diverse geographic and fishery contexts including both capture- and culture-based fisheries in rivers, lakes, dam reservoirs, floodplains,wetlands, canals and ponds identified aspects of sustainable management and governance of inland fisheries in India.Assisted by scientists and researchers from the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), the discussions highlighted the need for secure tenure for inland fishing communities. The workshop developed short-term and long-term action points for the implementation of NIFAP. The specific objectives of the workshop were to: – Identify social and ecological knowledge gaps that influence existing and proposed policies and legislation for inland fisheries governance – Develop long-term and short-term action points for implementing NIFAP, with special emphasis on vulnerable and marginalized groups; – Integrate elements of the SSF Guidelines in the implementation of NIFAP within the framework of a human rights-based approach; – Empower fishers and fishworkers to build their institutional capacity and to raiseawareness about the SSF Guidelines In the short-term, workshop participants recommended the revision of auction-leasing systems for water bodies so as to give preferential access to active, traditional fishers; bans and enforcement against illegal and criminal activities in and along waterbodies, including sand mining; support for enhancing women’s rights and participation in inland fisheries value chains; and the collection and transparent dissemination of gender-disaggregated data on inland fishing practices, markets, institutional arrangements, and fishworker associations. Long-term action points include the recognition of inland fisheries in national and sub-national policies for water management and formalization of fishers’ tenure rights; transfer of management rights over waterbodies to local fisheries authorities; maintenance of ecological and environmental flows in rivers and strengthening pollution control for the conservation of riverine biodiversity. This is the third of four national workshops organized by ICSF for the implementation of the SSF Guidelines in India. The action points developed through this process will be presented to the Government of India in New Delhi in November 2019 with the objective of developing implementation plans for NIFAP from 2020 onwards. For the workshop background paper, please visit: https://bit.ly/2mcYJud For the draft action points, visit: https://bit.ly/2m7JClI Details of Previous workshops on Developing action points on India’s National Marine Fisheries Policy is available at: https://igssf.demo2.icsf.net/en/page/1094-India%20Marine%20Fisheries%20Policy.html Mainstreaming gender in fisheries policy and legislation in India is available at: https://igssf.demo2.icsf.net/en/page/1095-India%20Mainstreaming%20Gender%20and%20Fisheries.html For more information, visit: https://igssf.demo2.icsf.net/en/page/1096-India%20Inland%20Fisheries%20Governance.html