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Visit to Sindhudurg
In order to understand the lives of coastal communities in Maharashtra, I contacted Mr Bhim Raskar of Resource and Support Centre for Development (www.rscd.org.in). RSCD works for the the empowerment of marginalised sections especially women. This trip was planned alongwith two students of TISS, Kavita and Rimi, who were doing their monthly internship with RSCD. We started on 22nd night, Saturday from Panvel by rail.
September 23, 2007
We reached Vaibhavwadi Station at 11 am on Sunday. From there we took an auto to Sherpe village. Sherpe is one of the villages in Taluka Vaibhavwadi. It is divided into wadis (clusters) on the basis of community like Patil, Bhatt, Budh, Muslim, Lingayat, Jain. Here we met Mrs Anooya Kulkarni. Anooya Tai works with Mahila Rajsatta Andolan, a campaign run by RSCD and has been working for creating social awareness on variety of issues in this region for the past 10-12 years.
We went to Tarla, a town, to attend a meeting of people working on land rights of the tillers. I explained the purpose of my visit. They told us that the fishermen have no safeguard against ?risks at sea?. The boat owners don?t pay them full wages, they have no insurance and in case of any mishap, they do not receive any compensation. The meeting went on for almost three hours wherein we were told that by an Act passed in late 1950s, the people who used the land - either for farming or had built up their houses on the land, were allowed to become the owners of the land. But the process involved is so cumbersome (legally and finnacially) that till date the title of the land has not passed on to these users of the land. This group is trying to create an awareness about the same in the Konkan region.
In the afternoon, we went to Vijaydurg. First we met an agent ? Rashid. He did not want us to meet the fishermen / boat owners and said that everything was fine. Fishermen earn upto Rs 10000 a month. Fishing is a very flourishing business, all fishermen are insured and in case of accident, the victims are paid compensation by the boat owners and the fellow fishermen.
We could make out that he was not telling the real story, so we asked the shopkeepers of that area as to where could we meet the people who actually do the fishing. We then met a boat owner Ganesh. He told us that agents exploit them. They do not give them the right price of their produce. When there is a huge catch, agents reduce the rate and as there are no cold storage facilities, they are forced to sell the catch at low rate. Another reason which forces them to sell the catch to the agents is the fact that the boat owners take advance from the agents for the daily needs of the business as repairing the net, purchasing fuel, etc.
Huge fishing trawlers are a big threat to the small boats. The fishing trawlers are not allowed to fish in shallow waters, which are reserved for the small boats. Not only the trawlers violate this rule, they also rip apart the nets of small boats when they come in vicinity of each other. Though fishing is not permitted in the period June to September (because of rains and also because that is the fish breeding season), many people illegally continue doing so because they have no other way to earn money. This is risky not only because it is illegal but also because this period is not covered under insurance. In case of a mishap, the insurance company is not liable to pay any compensation. Hence, this period brings in a lot of adversity.
There are no fishermen co-operatives here, youth are educated and it appeared they were active in politics as well. They wish to form co-operatives and work for woman empowerment. Ganesh told us they once tried imparting vocational training to women but nobody turned up. It seems they do not know how to go about bringing these changes.
September 24, 2007
We went to Anandwadi in Deograh taluka. This is a cluster of fishing community (Gabid). They have around 70 houses with about 800 people. They live in joint families. They have built a temple which is a place for the people of wadi to get together for prayers, resolving disputes, etc. Religious traditions are so important for the people that they will go to any extent to honor the same irrespective of the fact that they are economically not doing well. The community must have spent a lot of money on building the temple; in fact we were told that it was compulsory for everyone to contribute to the construction of the same even if it meant that they had to borrow money for the same. Though there is nothing wrong in building a temple or places of religious / social significance but I felt that there were more important things to cater to, for example, on our way to the temple we saw that there were no proper roads, the whole place was littered. It would have been better to build a simple temple and spend the rest of the money on issue like cleanliness, health and sanitation, approach roads, etc.
The people do not want to go out of this place (which in itself is not a bad thing, in fact good that people do not migrate to other lands but that should not mean that they do not get an opportunity to raise their economic status), even the educated youth (graduates) join the fishing business though the earnings are erratic, as there are no jobs outside. They are aware of the subsidies provided by the government for buying fishing trawlers. They have around 10-12 trawlers among themselves. They have fishing co-operatives (3 in number) two of them help auction the catch, the third one only helps from groups of 7 for availing the trawler subsidy. The women here form groups to make things like laddoos, papads, performing poojas and thus augment the family income. They sell these things along with fish.
The govt plans to develop a fishing harbor here for which they will have to displace some of the people along the coast. But as the community is already facing shortage of land, the displaced people have been offered land far away from the coast which these people are not willing to accept. This is delaying the process of setting up harbor.
We visited a couple of houses also. As it was the time of Ganpati festival, all the houses were decorated. The houses were pucca and it appeared that people, here led a reasonably comfortable life.
Then we went to Kunkeshwar. There are 2 type of fishing people here. One is the gabid community and the other is non-gabid. Gabids are small fishermen, have small boats, are widely scattered, manage to catch little quantities of fish. They sometimes are not even able to manage single meal a day. They find availing bank loans too bureaucratic and prefer to borrow money from friends and relatives. Any kind of government help is full of so many formalities that they end up spending too much money on availing the same and hence that help is of no use. Moreover government measures are half baked. They were provided with ice boxes wherein they could store the fish but there are no ice factories nearby and if they get the ice from district market, it turns out to be too expensive.
The family we met is trying to have alternate sources of livelihood; they have started an eatery near the Kunkeshwar temple.
Then there are the non-gabid fishermen. They are not fishermen by caste but do fishing only for some months in a year. They have mango gardens and hence they earn enough, 8-12 k per month on an average. But this is only average, the flow of income is erratic and they have to borrow money from the moneylenders. Money lenders have a unique way of lending money. They do not charge any interest explicitly but they require these fishermen to give them some part of their catch (which obviously is the best catch). The fishermen are gullible enough to think that they are not paying any interest.
There are 9 groups of 30-40 people each. They have a different (involving more effort and risk) technique for catching fish. They use large non motorized boats. They spread a net at different levels under water and then pull it. The nets that they use are very large (costing upto 3 lacs). their fish is more fresh for they do not pull out the net immediately. But they mostly sell fish to agents who further sell it to poultry. They get rs 8-9 per kg. They do not sell it for direct consumption as they do not get good price for the same because of excess supply. The womenfolk here also sell laddoos, papads, etc.
The youth have mostly finished their school. General awareness about their rights is low. The people we met are Kubi Marathas which according to Tayi are OBCs but they believe they are Marathas. Guruji (the leader of the group) said that they once tried telling the authorities that they should be covered under OBC but the Government refused saying that they were Marathas and hence not OBCs. Tayi told them that they should fight against this.
Guruji said that the Government wants to promote tourism here but they want to set up pubs and bars which go against the traditions and culture of the local communities. He said that they would like to showcase their own culture for the purposes of tourism rather support foreign traditions. Hence they are in conflict with the govt.
Conclusion
Here I am summing up my understanding about this place and the fishing community here.
The different types of people in fishing trade are as follows
? Small boat owners: They are usually people from the so called fishing ?Gabid? community. They own the boat and they themselves go out in the sea to catch the fish. They are scattered all along the coast and have to struggle a lot to make their ends meet
? Large boat owners: These are owned by fishermen in groups who go out fishing themselves and divide the catch among themselves
? Owners of fishing trawlers: These are comparatively rich people who own the trawlers and employ people who catch the fish for them. They take 50% of the catch and rest 50% is divided amongst the people who actually go out to catch the fish. The owners take care of the repair and maintenance, insurance, etc of the trawlers
? Boatless fishermen: they are the people who work either for the large boat owners or the fishing trawlers. They are at the mercy of the owners and many a times do not receive full wages. In case of mishaps, the boat owners do not pay the fishermen any compensation
? Agents: They play a very important role especially in case of boat owners. They purchase the catch from the fishermen and sell it to exporters, hoteliers, retailers, etc.
A few problems that I identified during my visit are as follows:
? Lack of access to market: Fishermen are dependent on agents who do not give them the right price for their catch. The infrastructure facilities as cold storage, are not available, hence fishermen are forced to sell off their catch at whatever price they get. Moving to the market on their own is an expensive proposition. Moreover, they do not have the network/ access to the buyers
? Lack of easy availability of credit: Because the formal sources of lending are so bureaucratic, fishermen take advance from the agents or village moneylenders. Agents are very willing to give advance for this brings upon an obligation on the fishermen to sell their produce to the agents even if the agents offer low price
? Limited alternative sources of livelihood: As the basic infrastructure is missing like availability of land, electricity, etc. there are very limited choices of alternative means of income. Some people have managed to own mango gardens collectively. Most of the women are engaged in cottage industries like making laddoos, papad, etc.
? Absence of will: People are facing problems in the fishing trade but they do not want to leave their traditional occupation. They do not think of improving the fishing techniques, increasing fish production or other ways to enhance their income. Even the educated youth lack the enthusiasm to improve the lot
? Low status of women: Women, though they contribute economically, do not enjoy a good status. They are not given the freedom to make their decisions; hardly any woman that we met at public places spoke in the presence of men. The reason that womenfolk didn?t turn up for the vocational trainings organized by Ganesh was that they were not supported by their husbands in doing so.
I discussed these problems with Anooya Tai, Kavita and Rimi and a few things (in the order of priority) that came through the discussion are as follows:
? People first need to be made aware of the possibilities of improvement. A will needs to be created wherein they do not depend on an external help but become determined to help themselves
? Creating market infrastructure: Provision of cold storage facilities and a marketing channel will help
? Devising means to promote the fishing trade: For example ? to increase fish production (quantity and variety). This will reduce the pressure on the existing resources, help promote exports
? Alternate livelihood: There is a need to create support (physical infrastructure, training, marketing channel) to promote alternate livelihood.
I plan another visit this week to Sindhdurg wherein I will cover a few more clsuters of fishermen. I will try and identify the groups with whom we can start working. This selection will be based on the acuteness of their problems and the level of comfort that Anooya Tai and her network enjoys with these clusters.
If you have any suggestions / feedback / ideas as to how we can go about this, do let me know.
Disclaimer: Views expressed here are personal and not those of the firm.