They were hearing a writ petition (PIL) No. 840/2023 PIL-W filed by three fishworker leaders.. The matter involves bilateral relationship and thus invokes the 2008 Agreement on Consular Access, the petitioners counsel argued. He also argued that this is a serious humanitarian issue involving the lives of hundreds and thousands of fishers in India and Pakistan.

The petition made compelling arguments for both Governments of India and Pakistan to follow the 2008 bilateral agreement and to release the fishers who are in each others’ jails, who have completed nationality verification and their due sentence for passports act violation. However, the Hon’ble bench felt that the court was not in a position to interfere with government matters that involved bilateral relations.

Issuing notice to the Government of India would have meant pulling up the government for its violation of the existing agreements and UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on Laws of the Sea). The petitioners, all fishermen leaders from Gujarat and Maharashtra, including leadership of the National Fishworkers’ Forum, believe that a judicial intervention was most important at this stage to compel the governments to act on the commitments they have made bilaterally.

They also wanted the Hon’ble Supreme Court to make an exceptional intervention to save the lives of fishers at a time when more fishermen are dying in the jails of each other. The latest in the unfortunate list is an Indian fisherman, Jagdish, in his thirties, who died in the Karachi jail on 6th August 2023.

Responding to the apex court’s dismissal of the case, activist and researcher on the issue Vijayan MJ, who is also the Indian Chapter General Secretary of Pakistan India Peoples’ Forum for Peace & Democracy, said: “it is sad that the Hon’ble SC bench has disposed a meritorious petition by fishers seeking livelihood rights, safety and dignity for the community. Bureaucratic red tapism and national egos of India and Pakistan have unfortunately held the innocent fishermen hostage. The fishermen should not be arrested at sea for fishing, it is just wrong. We are saddened but the efforts will continue. We will continue to study the issue in detail in the hope that the judiciary will be available for other justice resources in future. We hope the governments concerned will understand their duties to find a permanent solution to the issue.”

Journalist and long term campaigner on the issue Jatin Desai stated: “the fishermen are victims of hostilities between India and Pakistan. It is most unfortunate that even the Apex Court of India could not understand the rationale of this petition. We were hoping that the judiciary will come forward to make some important steps to fix the executive in taking coercive measures to provide relief to the fishermen of India and Pakistan.”

Campaign efforts by agencies including the Pakistan India People’s Forum for Peace & Democracy, Fishermen’s unions from India and Pakistan (NFF and PFF), the National Commission of Human Rights Pakistan, made sure that more than 400 fishers were released from Indian and Pakistani jails in the recent months. However close to 200 fishers continue to languish in jails as on date.

One of the petitioners, and National Vice-President of National Fishworkers Forum- India, Ramakrishna Tandel, said that they will consult with their lawyers and make more compelling strategies for future legal interventions. He thanked Adv Kuriakose Varghese and the KMNP lawyers team for their support to the cause of the fishers.

Related:

I don’t have 100 dollars to reach the port: Indian fisherman in Iran

“If the fish dies it is GDP. If fisherman dies its ex gratia”

How Budha Ismail Jam, a Gujarati fisherman, challenged multinationals in a US Court

The post Duty of GOI to ensure that innocent fishermen are not punished: SC appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Four fishermen went out on their routine fishing trip on June 13,  a calm Saturday morning, off the coast of Rameshwaram, in Tamil Nadu coastline’s Mannar Bay area. As usual, they took the small mechanised boat owned by William Castro. This time, Castro opted to give the fishing trip a miss. So it was just Regin Basker, Malar, Austin Sujinder (also known as Anand) and Jesu, who at over 65 years of age, was the eldest of the team. They have fished together a number of times before. That day, they were around eight-10 nautical miles into the sea, this was as far as they usually went to fish near Ramanathapuram, adjacent to the waters of Kottaipattinam. 

In a few hours, everything changed. They noticed a small hole in the boat and water began seeping in, soon enough the boat also developed a mechanical fault. The men could not fix it and the boat started sinking. “We could just shout for help,” recalled Jesu. He is the only one to have survived after the boat sank. A week after the incident, other local fishermen from Pudukottai who had volunteered to go out for  a search operation found the bodies of Bhaskar, and Anand too. They say it is impossible that Malar has survived but as his body has not been found, the administration will not declare him dead. A strange situation for his family, as they have to hold on to an impossible hope that Malar comes back alive, or just wait for official word so they can apply for getting ex gratia payment, of upto Rs 2 lakh given by the government’s fisheries department if a fisherman dies accidentally.

“If the fish dies it is GDP. If fisherman dies its ex gratia,” said  A Palsami, state secretary National Fishworkers Forum (NFF), and president Ramnad Fishworkers Trade Union (RFTU). He and other fishworker activists have for long been demanding that a search and rescue system be set up for the safety of the thousands of fishworkers who venture out to sea every day, across the vast coastline of the Indian peninsula. “The government says there is no fund to set up a search and rescue department with boats and trained people. The navy boats also do not have standing instructions to help search with their helicopters and boats,” said a fisherman of the area who also confirmed that the bodies of the missing fishermen had been found on Saturday, June 20. 

Just a week ago, as their boat was sinking, the four men had held on to the large ice box that was still afloat. Jesu, the survivor is understandably still traumatised and is said to be in a deep shock and slipping in and out of consciousness. However, he narrated his ordeal when he was rescued by local fishermen, a day after the boat sank. He said Malar and Anand told them they would swim to the nearest island and bring help.  “We will go get help. Don’t worry,” they said and started swimming towards the shore as Bhaskar and Jesu tried to stay afloat and held on to the icebox.

The ones who had ventured out did not return even the next morning. By then the ice box too began breaking down. By noon Bhasker told Jesu: “no one will come to rescue us, I am willing to risk my life and swim towards the shore…” he had not swum far, and a shocked Jesu watched the younger man drown. An image he kept describing even through his own pain when he was was eventually spotted and rescued by fishermen of Kottaipattinam village, that is adjacent to Ramanathapuram district.  He was brought back on the shore on Monday night. He had been found around 11  nautical miles from the shore. “These are not deep waters, it is well within Indian territorial waters,” said a fisherman who wished to remain anonymous.

It was the local fishermen, most of them members of the area trade union who went out in five boats to rescue their colleagues. There is still a sliver of hope that the last one remaining may reached, or that his body washed ashore on the nearby islands. However, some of those islands are in Sri lankan waters.

Even as late as yesterday, a fisherman reported a foul smell, perhaps because of a decaying human body floating near that area. So, local fishermen ventured out on their own boats. But when the fishermen reached there was no body, perhaps it was swept away by the current flow. The search and rescue ops are on, but still no luck. Almost a week has passed.

“These are individual volunteers, no choppers or rescue department were sent. This is always the case, the department does not have enough funds to search and rescue. I am a fisherman and I can confirm that . I have gotten this reply more than ten times in my life too,” said Jones Thomas Spartegus who is now doing his doctoral research in disaster and fisher rights. He is currently doing field work in Thoothukudi.

“The irony, and the sad side of this is that the fisheries department has been slack and negligent,” said a Fisheworkers Union leader adding, “there has been a long standing demand from the fishing unions of Tamil Nadu that some funds should be allocated to search and rescue with boats and rescue teams, for fishers who are risking their lives during fishing, but there have been no funds.”

The fishermen’s families get a small ex gratia payment when a body is found. “This is how the welfare of the fishermen work. The fisheries department will wait for a body to be found and release an ex gratia payment,” explained Jones.

Now that two bodies have been found, the Fishworkers Union wants the officials of  the fisheries department to start talks with the counterparts on the Sri Lankan side to help search for Malar’s body. The Ramnad Fishworkers Trade Union ( RFTU) has said that they will be forced to launch a protest soon, after consulting the affected families, if their requests are ignored yet again. If the body is not found for over two months the department issues a notice. Only after that can the family claim the ex-gratia payment. Most of the fisher workers do not have personal life insurance. This is all they are entitled to under the official welfare schemes:

The post “If the fish dies it is GDP. If fisherman dies its ex gratia” appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Union budget presented on July 4, seems to have disappointed many communities including fisherworkers. The Kerala SwatantaraMatsyathozhilali Federation, a body of fisherworkerssaid that the Union Budget has let the fishers down. The Federation’s president Kackson Pollayil said that the budget neglected them, denying their pleas for subsidy on kerosene and diesel and a waiver of their debts. The request for a cut in the GST levied on fishing equipment and compensation to those affected by natural disasters was also neglected, reportedly.

Pollayil called for steps to prevent foreign fishing vessels from fishing in Indian waters. He also asked for a ban on pair and bull trawling. Pair trawling has been reportedly been the reason for low catch in the Malabar coast. National Fish Workers’ Forum general secretary blamed unscientific construction of breakwaters for sea erosion.

While presenting the budget, Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman announced a new scheme which will promote processing in the fishery sector and allocated an estimated Rs. 3737 crore for a new ministry namely Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying. Although, the emphasis of the schemes appears to be to “address critical gaps in the value chain, including infrastructure, modernisation, traceability, production, productivity, post-harvest management, and quality control”, however there hardly seems any emphasis on protecting the lives and livelihood of traditional fisherfolks who are impacted by large scale fishing and climate change.

The scheme will be known as PradhanMantriMatsyaSampadaYojana (PMMSY) and has been established under the Department of Fisheries. Of the total budget allocated to the new ministry, Rs 2,932.25 crore is estimated to be spent on various schemes to promote animal husbandry and dairying, while Rs 804.75 crore for the fisheries sector in the current fiscal.

However, fisherfolks have different concerns. A fisherman from Chaliyam, whose fishing boat was destroyed during the Kerala floods, reportedly incurred a loss of over Rs. 1 lakh, but the compensation sanctioned to him was only Rs. 9000. Federation secretary Abdul Rasik said the compensation for boats damaged during the rescue operations were sanctioned only two weeks ago. The leaders of the two organisations plan to meet the Union Fisheries Minister to highlight the issues faced by the traditional fishing community.

Earlier, in 2018, in a Dangerous Setback to Coastal Planning and Safeguards in India, the Union Cabinet had approved Coastal Regulation Zone Notification 2018.

In a press release issued by the press information bureau, it was confirmed that the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification 2018 has been approved by the union cabinet. This executive legislature will replace the CRZ 2011.

The draft CRZ 2018 put out for public comments was opposed strongly by fisher groups on grounds that commercial interests like industries, tourism and real estate were prioritised over coastal ecology and livelihoods. The current development indicates that none of the feedback offered by fisherfolk and civil society has been incorporated.

Major Dilutions included –

• De-freezing of FSI in coastal areas, making way for high rises.
• No Development Zones reduced.
• Special considerations for tourism, defence and strategic projects.
• Decentralising CRZ clearance procedures.
• Opening up rural coastal areas for buildout.  

The post Where are India’s Fisherworkers for the Govt in its Budget ? appeared first on SabrangIndia.