Cops target fishermen’s wives to generate ‘fear of arrest’ in their men in deep sea

State DGP P C Thakur told The Indian Express, “This is an effective step to educate fishermen about the issues they are facing regularly. In the enthusiasm of catching better fishes, they cross the IMB and get caught by the PMA. The most effective way to stop them is education. They need to learn about the laws in India and Pakistan, what is exactly an IMB, no fishing zone, importance of transponders, surveillance and the issues related to crossing boundaries.”

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The Indian Coast Guard along with the state Fisheries Department had already tried installing Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponders in 1,000 fishing trawlers of the state which works on GPS and connected with the operation rooms of the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard also installed Distress Alarm Transmission System (DATS) to aide the fishermen in emergencies and incidents of crossing IMB, however, could offer only to 500 fishing boats.

When several efforts to keep watch on fishermen and their trawlers have received little success, the Coast Guard and Marine Police have devised a way to educate the families of the fishermen to aide them in following regulations.

“The warnings to fishermen have never helped the agencies. Instead of only warning or talking to them, we will now call their wives in the discussion planned to be held quarterly. The families are unaware of the risk involved in sailing to foreign water and only when the wives are educated, the fishermen will also learn. After a fisherman is arrested, his wife has to take up the job and she understands the repercussions more than the fisherman himself. The couple would be together counselled to help them build a complete understanding of the laws. They need to be given a sense of support from police and not fear of arrests,” the DGP added.

The state police said that this massive job along with the Coast Guard has already started to educate fishermen from district to district to bring an effect at the ground level.

The fishermen and their families would be called to the district areas from coastal villages and made to participate in the discussions where officials of Indian Coast Guard, Indian Navy, Gujarat Police, Customs, Gujarat Fisheries and other agencies would also participate.There are 24,000 fishing boats registered with the state government and a population of around one to two lakh fishermen in the state. The Coast Guard had organised a fishermen forum at Gujarat National Law University in August 2014 which received overwhelming response from other agencies and fishermen group. However, it brought no impact on the fishermen.

Last year, as many as 246 fishermen of Gujarat on board 41 boats were arrested by Pakistan, as per the records.

Manish Lodhari, president of Marine Fisheries Co-operative Society, said, “The police and the Coast Guard have started making a dialogue with the fishermen which is a positive step. The fishermen need to talk to officials often about the issues they face in sea. The fishermen are more than happy to attend any meeting for safety but the officials need to increase the vigilance too to avoid such arrests of fishermen.”

The fishermen watch groups will be also asked to attend these sessions compulsorily to motivate more women to join watch groups. The group provides timely intelligence and information on activities at the coast to the Coast Guard and the police.Both Gujarat Police and Indian Coast Guard keep a vigil across the 1,600 km coastline of the state.

The Gujarat Police has a special marine force with around 800 policemen deployed at the 21 marine police stations in the state. Besides, there are 25 check posts and 46 outposts. The state police also had a Marine Task Force of an estimated strength of around 200 commandos trained by the marine wing of Border Security Force and handed over with latest machine guns to a keep close watch at the coast.

The entire coastline from Sethwara Bet to Umargam comes under the Coast Guard Region (North West). There are seven Coast Guard Stations in Jakhau, Mundra, Vadinar, Okha, Veraval, Pipavav and Porbandar.

However, the watch on fishing trawlers and fishermen remains a challenge for the police and the marine agencies.