Sole breadwinner of her home since August 2022, 32-year-old Bharati Solanki’s attempts to fight back her tears fail as she bursts out, weeping profusely, while detailing her ordeal.
The responsibility of the house fell on her after her husband Sanjay, who is among the 180-odd fishermen from Gujarat and Diu languishing in Pakistan jail, was caught by the Pakistan authorities in September 2022 while fishing near Okha, a news she was made aware of a few days later.
Fifty three of these fishermen have reportedly been in Pakistan jail since 2021.
Feeling helpless in establishing any communication with their husbands or sons jailed in Pakistan and struggling to run their homes in their absence, several women from Gujarat and Diu on Friday addressed a press conference in Ahmedabad seeking the Central government’s intervention.
The women have also written to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in connection with the matter to get the fishermen released and to get an Agreement on Consular Access, 2008 signed between India and Pakistan implemented.
“I spoke to him (Sanjay) over phone in August 2022 he was fishing somewhere near Okha. By September end, I got to know that he was caught by Pakistan authorities. He was the main breadwinner of the family. And now, in his absence, I am…I earn around Rs 5,000 per month for the family by doing labour work at Vanakbara port. But that is not enough for us,” Bharati told The Indian Express.
“My father-in-law Veljibhai is paralysed and my mother-in-law Dhaniben can’t move much due to knee problems. I am facing a lot of problems to make both ends meet every month. Medicines for my father-in-law cost around Rs 7,000 per month. Due to shortage of money, we have stopped buying medicines for him,” says the Diu resident.
Bharati has two children, seven-year-old son Tanish and three-year-old daughter Hansika. Tanish studies in Class I.
Making an appeal to the government, she said, “It is my request to the Indian Government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to get the fishermen repatriated to their homes. There are many women like me who have young kids. There is no one to earn at their homes. How do we survive?
How do we raise our children and educate them? How do we (medically) treat our old in-laws? My husband was the only earning member and he is in Pakistan jail for the past three years. We don’t know anything about him.”
The press interaction was held under the aegis of Samast Machhimar Samaj Welfare Foundation (SMSWF).
Sharing her plight, another Diu resident Jayaben Chavda, 50, said, “My son Alpesh (28) got married in 2020 and he was apprehended by Pakistan in 2021. His wife Arati was pregnant when Alpesh was caught. She has delivered a son and Alpesh has not even seen his son’s face.”
“My husband is dead and I cannot work due to health issues. Arati is earning for the family by cooking meals for people. Unable to meet the monthly expenses, we now have a debt of over Rs 1 lakh,” she added.
SMSWF secretary Usmangani Sherasiya said, “According to the rules in Pakistan, the punishment for apprehended fishermen for crossing border without passport is three months. Around 180 of them have served the punishment and their national verification is also completed.
Still, the process to repatriate them has not been done. Their families have been facing a lot of hardships because of that”.
“Since Covid-19, the process to communicate through letters also stopped.So, the families have no information about these fishermen,” Sherasiya said.
The women and their supporters on Friday wrote to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to get an agreement signed between India and Pakistan on consular access to civilian prisoners and fishermen in each other’s custody implemented, Sherasiya added.
In their letter, the women have also sought to revive the India-Pakistan Judicial Committee on Prisoners. The committee, comprising senior retired judges of both the countries, was set up by the governments of India and Pakistan in 2008.
“It is necessary to revive the India-Pakistan Judicial Committee on Prisoners. The last meeting of the committee was held in October 2013.
The committee was functioning effectively as the members used to visit the other country and meet the prisoners. It helped in getting them released also,” reads one of the requests in the letter to Jaishankar.
As part of the agreement, Sherasiya said, on January 1 and July 1 every year, India and Pakistan exchange a list of people in each other’s custody and then the process to get them released starts. “January 1 has gone and the fishermen are still locked,” he said.
Clause 5 of the agreement – signed between High Commissioner of India and High Commissioner of Pakistan on May 21, 2008 — reads,
“Both governments agree to release and repatriate persons within one month of confirmation of their national status and completion of sentences.”
Sherasiya said, “The government should write to Pakistan and ensure that not a single fisherman of India or Pakistan is there in jail of either of the countries”.
He added that 82 fishermen from Pakistan are currently jailed in India.
Jatin Desai, Mumbai-based journalist who has been working for the community for years now and was present at the press conference, said, “Currently, there are 217 fishermen from India in Pakistan jail; 18 of them are from Maharashtra, 18 from Tamilnadu, one from Uttar Pradesh and the rest from Gujarat and Diu”.