CHENNAI : Fishermen, from time immemorial, have been ‘guarding’ the southern part of our nation from all the three sides with the coastline running to 8,000 km. Their presence has remained a kind of deterrent to anybody who might try to intrude into Indian territorial waters. We can proudly say our fishermen, in a way, help Indian Navy or Army without being formally employed by the government to assist them.
The Sagarmala scheme which has been introduced by the union government proposes to set up industrial corridors, 52 new ports and petrochemical region which will deplete the vulnerable coastline and immensely affect the livelihood of fishermen.
This scheme is likely to support only industrialists at the cost of poor fishers. The intention with which the scheme has been introduced leaves a lot to be pondered over. The seashore is like to get allotted to major corporates for commercial exploitation. It is a sad story that the sea shore, which originally belonged to the fishermen, is slowly shrinking and the fishers are forced to shift.
It is unfortunate that very little importance to being given by the union government to address the woes of Tamil fishermen. That fishermen of Tamil Nadu are very frequently attacked and apprehended by the Sri Lankan Navy is no longer news.
However, the union government, surprisingly, hasn’t taken significant action to end the menace. In recent times when Sri Lanka faced severe economic and political crisis, Indian government extended huge financial support to bail out the island nation. Regrettably, our government missed out on such a opportunity to talk to our neighbour and permanently put an end to the woes of our fishermen. The union government claimed that with latest satellite technology, our fishermen can know where exactly fish is available on the high seas.
Ironically, it makes us wonder whether satellite information is helping the Sri Lankan Navy arrest our fishermen even without we entering their territorial waters.
The arrest of Tamil fishermen by the island nation seems to have significantly gone up over the recent years. It would be an understatement to say that at least one event of fishermen arrest is reported every week. Our fishermen also come under attack and their boats are impounded.
These vessels are left to rot, and even if our fishers are freed after a lot of effort, their boats are not released. This pushes fishermen into huge loss. Recently, a person caught driving the boat of our fishermen was sentenced to six months in jail for being a ‘first-time offender’ and another got a year jail term for being a ‘repeat offender.’
The fishermen of Rameswaram have staged protest several times condemning the arrest of fishermen and seeking release of impounded boats. A strike undertaken recently seeking the release of arrested fishermen and 350 of their boats was temporarily called off based on the assurance of the Ramanathapuram collector that concrete action would be taken immediately.
Another issue affecting fishermen is insufficient diesel subsidy given by the state government. With fish catch dwindling, diesel price and labour cost has started to become a major burden for boat owners. The GST on fishing nets levied by the union government is a harsh blow to the suffering fishers. The issues plaguing fishermen have to be addressed seriously and their voice has to be clearly heard in Parliament and Assembly. The population of fishermen is being put at 3.4 crore. However, they are not being represented sufficiently in Parliament.
It may be noted that the Mandal Commission had recommended exclusive reserve constituency for fishermen during delimitation exercise. It is time our voices are heard loudly at the right places.
Poor representation
Population of fishermen is put at 3.4 crore. But they are not being represented sufficiently in Parliament. Even Mandal Commission had recommended exclusive reserve constituency for fishermen during delimitation exercise
Footnote is a weekly column that discusses issues relating to Tamil Nadu
S Armstrong Fernando is chairperson of All India Fishermen Congress of the Indian National Congress