Project Kaayal focuses on empowering indigenous fishing communities in Kerala and is modelled after the Kuruwitu Conservation & Welfare Association. It essentially seeks to give back to the fishing community of Kerala by ensuring their socio-economic self-sufficiency by giving them priority agency over the seas and backwaters and helping them harness their understanding of the marine ecosystem to their and the biodiversity's advantage. As one of the most historically marginalised classes in the State, the issues faced by the community are not merely occupational in nature, but overlap with other material and social disadvantages, along with bearing the very severe effects of climate change.

The project hopes to conduct awareness-raising events within the community and to collect their input on a number of aspects. Further, these will be studied and developed into a proposal through collaboration with experts in the field (such as marine scientists) and submitted to the concerned State Departments, such as the Fisheries Department, the Backward Communities Development Department and the Kerala State Legal Services Authority namely.