Satyajeet Jharve, a 35-year-old fisherman in the Indian state of Maharashtra, has been hit hard by the Covid-19 lockdown. Business is down, and the 32 migrant workers who operate his boats have been stranded in the vessels at his village in Ratnagiri.
Already in debt, Jharve said he was also providing for the workers, which made his financial situation all the more precarious.
There are at least hundreds of such migrants stranded in my village who are left with no work as there is no demand for the product and a large part of work remains suspended because of the lockdown, Jharve told ThePrint.
The workers, who hail from different parts of the country, have been living in the boats in cramped conditions, with no option to return home.
We have supplied them with dry rations and drinking water with whatever little money we have left as they can’t get off the boats now said Jharve. They have nowhere to go because of the lockdown.
To add to the worries, the cramped living conditions on board the boats constitute a Covid-19 hazard, but Jharve claimed they were helpless. There is no way of practising social distancing on the boats Even if they get down, they will have to live in the temporary shelters erected on the coast (by fisherfolk), which are already occupied by other workers, he added.
In light of the lockdown, industry experts say, around 1 lakh migrant workers are stranded in fishing boats and at harbours in Maharashtra alone. According to the National Fishworkers Forum (NFF), a national federation of state-level unions representing small and traditional fish workers, there have been at least two deaths on board such boats from the Veraval harbour in Gujarat, one of them allegedly due to starving.
Amid these complaints, the government says it’s doing its best to provide aid to the stranded fishermen.
An official with the department of fisheries under the Union Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries said the states have been instructed to maintain a record of fisheries-related migrant workers with their full names, residence details and contact numbers. This is meant to ensure rations and other essential supplies to them and their respective families, the official added.
Speaking to ThePrint, the office of Maharashtra Fisheries Minister Aslam Sheikh said, We are doing our best to provide food and other amenities to all the migrant fish workers stranded at sea and in other coastal areas.
However, a large number of migrant workers from different states have been stranded on fishing vessels and fish-landing sites across the states and most of them do not have an avenue to return to their villages due to the lockdown and are thus stranded in unfamiliar locations, the statement added.
Jharve and his employees are not alone. Covid-19 has left India’s fishermen at sea all along the Indian peninsula. Lashed by a series of cyclones last year, the industry was just finding its feet when the pandemic knocked it to its knees again, say insiders.
While the lockdown exemptions announced by the government cover the fisheries sector (page 3), members complain that the absence of key inputs is keeping them from setting out on sea. The demand, they add, has dwindled, which has shrunk returns.
For each boat, there is an input cost for every trip, like diesel, fishing net and ice, when they go for fishing, which amounts to Rs 30,000-35,000 (per trip), said Kiran Maha Deo Koli, president of the Maharashtra Macchimar Kruti Samiti (Maharashtra fisherfolk’s action committee), a collective of state-based workers employed in fisheries and allied sectors. But nowadays the returns have dropped to Rs 5,000, which takes the losses as a whole in the sector to crores.
Even though the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has allowed work related to fisheries and allied sectors during the lockdown, Jharve said, there is no availability of ice or fish workers at mandis and the usual transport facilities. So, there is no scope of monetary returns in fishing as of now.
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