[Reader-list] Fishers up in arms against policy shift

[T Peter]

Fishers up in arms against policy shift

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   http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/fishers-up-in-arms-against-policy-shift/article7928415.ece


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Expert panel set up by Centre has failed to address stakeholders’ concerns,
say Kerala fishermen
[image: Serious issues have not been adequately addressed in the
questionnaire prepared by various Union Ministries, feel fishermen’s
organisations.— File Photo: Vipin Chandran]
Serious issues have not been adequately addressed in the questionnaire
prepared by various Union Ministries, feel fishermen’s organisations.— File
Photo: Vipin Chandran

Fishing communities in Kerala and the other coastal States are up in arms
against the constitution of an expert committee by the Central government
to revise the National Marine Fisheries Policy, without ensuring the
representation of stakeholders.

Leaders of various fishermen organisations say that the absence of
stakeholders’ participation would make a farce of the policy revision and
reduce it to a bureaucratic exercise. They said the revised policy would
meet the same fate as the recommendations of the Dr. Meenakumari commission
on deep sea fishing and the proposals of the Dr. Saida Rao committee on the
monsoon fishing ban, both of which were shelved in the wake of stiff
protest from the coastal communities.

A survey initiated by the expert committee to elicit response to the
preparation of the revised fisheries policy has also come under fire from
fishermen organisations who feel that it failed to address their livelihood
concerns and the key issues affecting the marine fisheries sector. The
survey involves a set of 85 questions to be answered in the Yes/No format.

*Questionnaire*

The questionnaire has been prepared and circulated by the expert committee
set up by the Union Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries
(DADF) with the Director General, Indian Council for Agricultural Research
(ICAR) S. Ayyappan as chairman. Stakeholders and the general public can
submit their response up to December 10.

“Eliciting suggestions and views without a draft policy document does not
make sense”, says T. Peter, Secretary, National Fishworkers Forum. “Some of
the questions are vague and do not address the real issues faced by
fisherfolk. The Yes/No format is not the ideal method either. It smacks of
an attempt to create a smokescreen.”

Says Anto Elias, Secretary, Kerala Swathantra Matsya Thozhilali Federation
(KSMTF), “Serious issues like climate change and sea level rise that would
necessitate relocation of fishermen, operation of foreign trawlers in
Indian waters, destructive methods of fishing and encroachment of coastal
areas for non-fishing activities have not been adequately addressed by the
questionnaire. If the government was sincere, it should have first taken
steps to create a separate ministry for fisheries.”

Interestingly, a section of leaders representing fishermen organisations
have raised the demand to project the BJP national policy on fishing and
fishermen as the base document for the expert committee. The party policy,
prepared in 2012 during the tenure of the UPA government, had promised to
improve the socio-economic conditions of the fishing communities if the BJP
was voted to power in 2014.

*A section of leaders want to project the BJP national policy on fishing as
the base document*