With the deadline for submitting proposals on the National Fisheries Policy 2020 ending on Saturday, All Kerala Fishing Boat Operators Association, Kerala Swathanthra Matsya Thozhilali Federation, and the National Fish Workers Forum have written to the Union government, expressing apprehensions over the intentions of the government and the impact of the new regulations on the fishing sector.
In their letter to the Joint Secretary, Fisheries, boat operators said the new regulations encouraged heavy private capital investment in the sector. The move will marginalise traditional fishers. “Instead of empowering traditional fishers who are highly skilled in deep sea fishing, the government wants private players to enter the scene. The move favours private capital,” said Joseph Xavier Kalappurakkal of All Kerala Fishing Boat Operators Association here on Saturday.
Jackson Pollayil of Swathanthra Matsya Thozhilali Federation and Fish Workers Forum said though the Fishing Policy – 2020 largely depended on recommendations of various commissions appointed to study the sector, the government did not implement any of the recommendations that favoured traditional fishers. He pointed to the S. Ayappan Committee report, which had recommended that no foreign vessels be allowed to exploit resources in India’s economic zone. The committee had recommended that the government help fishers through training and technical and financial help to fish in deep waters. However, the government now appears to be in favour of joint ventures between Indian and foreign companies, he said.
Mr. Kalappurakkal said Chinese fishing vessels had been exploiting resources in Indian waters. “There are around 800 of them, and the government has not heeded to the pleas of fishers to take action against them,” he added. Fisher folk should be taken into confidence and their inalienable rights should be respected, the letter from boat operators said. The rights of traditional fishers cannot be sacrificed to allow new entrants to flourish in the field, it added. Meanwhile, boat owners felt that allowing fishers to market catch without middlemen was one of the key requirements of the sector. Even export-oriented fish does not fetch a decent price for fishers. Mr. Kalappurakkal also said that the policy draft was silent on the almost daily increase in the price of diesel and how it would affect the lives of fishers, who constituted the backbone of the coastal economy.