Thousands of fishermen under the fold of the Odisha Traditional Fish Workers’ Union (OTFWU) on Wednesday came in a rally from Gopa Chowk to the District Collectorate in Kendrapada in the Indian State of Odisha and later held a protest meeting pressing for an 11-point charter of demands.
Former Minister Ganeswar Behera and District Krushak Sabha leader Gayadhar Dhal participated in the mass dharna to support the fishermen.
According to the agitators, sea fishing is the only source of collecting bread and butter for them. In 1997, the Government had declared Gahiramatha areas as a marine sanctuary to protect the turtles. By declaring the areas as a marine sanctuary the authority pushed many fishermen into the brink of poverty in the name of providing safety to the endangered Olive Ridely sea turtle.
The fishermen are forced to work in other State as bonded labours after losing their livelihood at home. Several fishermen in past committed suicide after they failed to repay the debts and also failed to feed their families due to the ban imposed by the State Forest Department for about six months in a year. Due to poverty, the fishermen have failed to provide proper education to their children and also facing a lot of problems in conducting marriage of their grown up girls.
A couple of fishermen were killed in bullets by the joint patrolling team of police and forest personnel for going to catch fish.
Till date, the forest department managed to seize more than 940 boats and registered cases against 3,000 fishermen for violating the forest department’s prohibition order to catch fish in Gahiramatha during the turtle season, said Odisha Traditional Fish workers’ Union (OTFWU) president Narayan Haldhar.
To safeguard the livelihood of the fishermen, the OTFWU has demanded before the State Government for redrawing the demarcated line of Gahiramatha and reducing the marine sanctuary area from Chinchiri mouth to Dhamara mouth. The OTFWU also demanded compensation to the fishermen whose boats were seized and supply of sea worthy boats to them, enrollment of the affected fishermen families under a low-cost housing scheme and Mo Kudia Yojana, formation of a task force for the development of the fisher folk, provision of monetary assistance for organising their girl’s marriages, besides `3,000 as old age pension to the fishermen who are 60 years old.
The fishermen alleged that though the CEC (Central Empowered Committee) formed by the Supreme Court had recommended in 2007 to compensate affected fishermen but the State Government was yet to provide compensation to the affected fishermen during fishing ban.
Though the World Bank funded Integrated Coastal Zone Management Programme (ICZMP) has got underway for compensating the livelihood loss during the ban period, a majority of jobless fishermen are left uncovered to get PDS rice. Hence, the district administration should carry out the enumeration drive to enlist the fishermen, who were uncovered. The Government should include Fishermen Co-operative Societies in ICZMP for providing benefits to the fishermen and hike the finance assistance from `4 lakh to `10 lakh, they demanded.
2011 The Pioneer