Human Rights Day Special : Accosting Fishing Rights

Indian fishermen face a barrage of resistance from the Sri Lankan side which deprives them of their rights to livelihood

S.N.Aiyer

Since long, every year November  21 is celebrated all over the world as World Fisheries Day.  In India, it is being celebrated for the fourth consecutive year, but still, it is not commonly known that marine fishing is a big employment generator industry in India, especially in the coastal States. Current estimates are of over 1.5 crore people getting their daily bread from it. The scope for further growth is obvious seeing that India has a serpentine and a long coastline of about 7517 kms encompassing as many as 3,827 fishing villages. Today, India is a major supplier of fish in the world and latest statistics released show that exports to some 75 countries, earned over US$ 5.78 billion (Rs. 37,871 crores) during 2016-17, which is the highest export from the country so far.
Significantly, fish production in India has grown at a higher rate than foodgrains, milk, eggs, and other food items. As a result, India is today among the top three largest fish producing countries in the world Yet, sadly,  although overall production in India grew tenfold since 1947, in productivity terms India has fallen far behind China and worse still, the plight of the fishermen community remains pathetic and their woes unmitigated.

Unmitigated Woes
 In Tamil Nadu, the situation is such that the marine fishermen are worst affected with their fishing rights being negated blatantly from across the seas under various pretexts. This includes, both, the small time and poor fisherfolk, who go out to sea in the traditional “artisan” fishing wooden crafts called “catamarams”, which in Tamil means tied logs of wood and the richer ones who use trawlers and mechanised boats.
The main area of their concern is the Palk Bay where they have been fishing for centuries but now face a plethora of problems every day. Unfortunately, they feel that neither the scholars doing research on their conditions nor the media understand their grievances.
The fishermen face a barrage of resistance from the Sri Lankan side which till the 1970’s was peacefully and amicably allowing them to venture into Sri Lankan waters and vice versa.  
Of late, the Sri Lankans are both seizing the boats and arresting fishermen alleging they had violated the International Maritime Boundary. The point the fishermen make is that this the Sri Lankans have been doing for quite some time but the latest is about killing fishermen and damage being caused to the boats too. In fact, media reports have quoted Sri Lankan PM Ranil Wickremasinghe as saying the Sri Lankan navy was within its rights to shoot at the Indian fishermen entering Sri Lankan waters. However, he is quiet about the traditional rights of the Indian fishermen which have been taken away by a recent legislation passed by the Sri Lankan Parliament which prescribes draconian measures including banning the entry of the Indian boats.
Grim Infringement
Moreover, the Sri Lankan narrative to the international media is that the Indians are “poaching” on their side, which is inaccurate and inconsistent with the long existing practice of joint fishing. The fishermen feel that this is a grim infringement of their rights but they fear that their pleas are not even being heard.
While the intervention is made by the State Government of Tamil Nadu may be known in this matter, there is some question being raised on this account too. The parallel being drawn is that when our Indian nationals are killed or their rights are adversely affected by international neighbours on the Indo-Pak border or Indo-Bangla border, the Governments of the States concerned are often not required to be consulted when taking up the matter at the appropriate bilateral levels. Similarly, there is a feeling gaining strength that the Centre should take cognizance of this matter ‘suo moto’ and intervene to protect the rights of the fishermen.
Another complaint the fishermen have about their rights is that when the State or national media – or even the international ones – report on incidents concerning them, the focus is on christening the affected as “Tamils” not as “Indians”. TV channels, social media platforms or the Tamil diaspora invariably rake up the public sentiment and aggravate the matter by dubbing it a problem of rights of Tamils. They feel it would give the Sri Lankans some sense of realisation of the gravity of their mistakes if the entire gamut of issues facing the fishermen were to be seen in India and especially in the international community as a matter faced by Indian nationals, not mere Tamils.
A more important issue from the standpoint of their rights is the trampling over by the Sri Lankans of the humanitarian concerns of the families of those fishermen who are still “missing”. According to Anwhar Rajhaa, MP from AIADMK for Tamil Nadu’s southernmost district of Ramanathapuram (which faces the brunt of the menace from Sri Lanka), this is one issue haunting the lives of thousands of young girls, whose husbands went to earn his livelihood but whereabouts are still not known.
New Initiatives
With Prime Minister Modi taking a keen interest in relations with our neighbours especially after the recent visit of Sri Lankan PM Ranil Wickremasinghe to New Delhi, there appears to be a glimmer of hope that this longstanding irritant can be resolved.
 Amidst this, it is heartening too that Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister, Shri Radha Mohan Singh recently announced: “specific decisions have been taken to safeguard the interests of traditional fishermen in the area of EEZ beyond 12 nautical miles, which is regulated by the Government of India”. Hopefully, the rights of the fishermen will also receive some attention now with the newly declared Mission for achieving a “Blue Revolution”.
(The writer is a  New Delhi based freelance)