Private contractors spell trouble for fishermen in Vidarbha region

NAGPUR DECEMBER 2: About two lakh inland fishermen in Vidarbha face the threat of starvation as a shift in policies by the erstwhile Shiv...

NAGPUR DECEMBER 2: About two lakh inland fishermen in Vidarbha face the threat of starvation as a shift in policies by the erstwhile Shiv Sena-BJP government has opened the doors to private fishing contractors.

The region has about 15,000 large, medium and small water bodies from which the fishing tribes have traditionally earned there livelihood. Over a period of time, the fishermen have organised themselves into nearly 500 primary cooperatives societies with more than 40,000 active members. Besides, there are more than a lakh-and-a-half unorganised fishermen drawing sustenance from small and minor water bodies.

Some parts of lakes are under the ownership of different zilla parishads and the rest are with the irrigation department, municipal councils and municipal corporations.

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These bodies would award annual fishing contracts to the fishermen’s co-operative societies. In 1995, however, the then ruling alliance decided to allow the entry of private contractors by auctioning the fishing rights in lakeshaving a water expanse of 200 hectares or more.

It was obvious that the fishermen’s societies could not match the private bidders at the auctions and they straightaway lost out the rights to fish in about 95 big, medium, small and minor irrigation projects.

It was argued that the contractors too would need the fishermen to harvest the waters. In fact, the conditions of the contracts too stipulate that the contractors must employ only local labour for fishing.

But, the experience has been that they’ve shipped in cheap labour from Andhra and Orissa driving the local fishermen to starvation.

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