Behind fisherfolk’s homecoming, a quiet campaign from Mumbai shores

He credited efforts by leaders like Velji Masani of Akhil Bharatiya Fishermen Association (ABFA), Balu Socha of Samudra Shramik Suraksha Sangh, Kodinar, Jivan Jungi, Chhagan Bamania of Diu, Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD), National Fishworkers’ Forum of India (NFF), Rabiya Javeri Agha of NCHR, (National Commission for Human Rights), Pakistan FisherFolk Forum, Haya Zahid (a human rights advocate in Pakistan), Edhi Foundation, Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, and others for the release of the fisherfolk.

Desai, who left his law studies midway in 1978 to work for the tribals of Maharashtra’s Palghar, added, “Fisherfolk cross IMBL (International Maritime Boundary Line) inadvertently as it is not demarcated. They are innocent. No one detained from Indian fishing boats has ever turned out to be a terrorist. The maximum sentence for trespassing Pakistan waters is six months. Why imprison them for years?”

‘Families destroyed’

Desai, who joined PIPFPD in 2002, said he learnt about fisherfolk issues between India and Pakistan during a 2004 session in Pakistan. On his return to India, he met the fisherfolks’ families and leaders in Gujarat. “I realised that prolonged imprisonment of fisherfolk — often the sole breadwinners of their families — was destroying families. So I started appealing to both governments to see this issue not as a political one, but as a humanitarian one,” said Desai, who has visited Pakistan multiple times to espouse the cause.

Citing India’s understanding with Sri Lanka with respect to Tamil Nadu fisherfolk, he has been requesting India and Pakistan for the past seven-eight years to adopt a no-arrest policy in case fisherfolk from either country inadvertently cross the IMBL. He said a trawler caught on the wrong side of the IMBL can be checked by the security agencies and the fisherfolk frisked. In case nothing suspicious is found, he proposed, they should let them go.

Desai said incarcerating fisherfolk is a drain on the resources of both nations. “Jails in both countries are overcrowded. Both governments spend huge amounts on maintaining these prisons and providing for the inmates,” said Desai, adding that both nations should take measures to control marine pollution, which forces fisherfolk to venture deeper into the waters in search of fish.

Besides the fisherfolk, the peace activist has also taken up cudgels on behalf of cattle-herders from Kutch who inadvertently crossed over to Pakistan.

As India and Pakistan geared up to celebrate their 75th Independence day and Foundation Day respectively in 2021, Desai addressed a press conference in Rajkot to appeal for the release of the imprisoned fisherfolk. While 20 Indian fisherfolk were released from Pakistan in June 2022, the number of those being apprehended by Pakistan for allegedly crossing the notional IMBL in the Arabian Sea, off the coast of Kutch, kept rising. On August 8, 2022, a delegation led by Daman and Diu MP Lalubhai Patel, comprising Desai, met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and requested him to secure the release of Indian fisherfolk imprisoned in Pakistan. On April 13, Desai, in a press conference in Ahmedabad, demanded the release of 631 Indian fisherfolk in Pakistan’s jail and 83 Pakistani fisherfolk lodged in India’s jails. The PIPFPD held a press conference in Lahore the same day and made the same demands.

Desai, who served as secretary of the Indian chapter of PIPFPD between 2015 and 2018, took to Twitter on May 3, a day before Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s arrival in Goa for the meeting of SCO Foreign Ministers Council.

“Pakistan’s FM Bilawal Bhutto is expected to come to Goa tomorrow to participate in SCO FMs meeting. As a gesture of goodwill, we appeal him 2 announce release & repatriation of 631 Indian fishermen from its prison. They have completed their sentences & their nationality is also confirmed long time ago. Keeping them in prison is a violation of bilateral Agreement on Consular Access. Both side must release fishermen of other country,” Desai tweeted.

The good news came on May 4 via the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR), Pakistan’s human rights watchdog, while Zardari was in Goa. “NCHR campaign for the release of imprisoned fishermen bears fruit. Pakistan Govt notifies release of 1st batch of 200 fisherman home. Thank you #MinofForeignAffairs & @BBhuttoZardari for quick action. Waiting for good news from India,” NCHR posted on its Twitter handle.

Pakistan had decided to release 499 fisherfolk and one civilian in three batches — 200 each on May 11 and June 1, and 100 on July 3. The arrival of the last batch in India will mark the completion of the release and repatriation of the largest ever number of fisherfolk in one cycle — overtaking the 440 released in 2010. After 198 fisherfolk reached Veraval, India released 20 Pakistani fisherfolk, who reached their homes on May 20.

‘A ray of hope’

Heaping praise on Desai, Masani, a fisherman from Mangrol in Gujarat, said, “Over the past two decades, India’s relations with Pakistan have been strained and it has a direct bearing on fisherfolk. But Desai emerged as a ray of hope for us. He started talking to people on the other side even though the two governments had shut down all communication channels. Since he is apolitical, he commands respect from our community as well as officers and activists on either side of the border. Being a journalist, he has contacts in political and bureaucratic circles. It is a blessing for us that he’s using his knowledge and energy for such causes.”

Talking about what inspired him to work for noble causes, Desai, who said he draws his inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi, Bhagat Singh and BR Ambedkar, said, “I was an undergraduate student during Emergency. Students of that generation passionately believed that we could change the world and that we should do something to create a society based on equality.”

Desai said his father, a native of Gujarat’s Bhavnagar city, migrated to Mumbai in search of a better life. Eldest among two brothers, Desai became a reporter for Gujarat Samachar, a Gujarat daily, in Mumbai in 1983. Within a decade, he became the president of the Bombay Union of Journalists, supporting liberal causes and advocating the welfare of the marginalised.

He went on to work for Gujarati publications like Janmabhoomi and Midday, and Marathi publications like Loksatta, Maharashtra Times, etc., before quitting as a full-time reporter in 2008. He took up contributory and consulting roles, writing columns and opinion pieces. He received the Maharashtra Foundation Award, 2020, for social service. “I became a journalist to express my views and thoughts. But after time passed, I realised that I could do a lot without being on the payroll of a media house,” he said.