Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Small-scale fishermen form the backbone of India's fisheries sector, but policy is silent on them -John Kurien

Small-scale fishermen form the backbone of India's fisheries sector, but policy is silent on them -John Kurien

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Jul 12, 2017   modified Modified on Jul 12, 2017
-Scroll.in

The National Policy on Marine Fisheries is tentative and fails to address the real problems of traditional fishing communities.

Though India cannot call itself a nation of fish-eaters, it does have some of the world’s richest fishery resources and an Exclusive Economic Zone in the ocean the size of 60% of its land area. It ranks third in world fish production with a harvest of 6.3 million tonnes. This is largely because of the skills and labour of our small-scale fishermen, not as a result of support from the government.

Yet, India has been unable to build a vibrant fishery sector because of misplaced priorities of economic development that ignore the backbone of this sector – the small-scale coastal fishermen. The new National Policy on Marine Fisheries gazetted on May 1 is no different. It seems to have been influenced by an “invisible hand” with a preference for tentativeness and a bias towards private participation. The concerns of small fishing communities, included in an earlier draft, have been subtly changed.

If it intends “to guide the coordination and management of marine fisheries in the country during the next 10 years”, as its mission statement reads, it would need a clearer statement on addressing existing realities and a more discursive analysis of a strategy for action into the future where, quoting from the policy preamble, “fishers will be at the core of this Policy [and] actions will also be guided by the public trust doctrine”.

Exaggerated picture

The profile of the sector, spelt out in the document, gives an exaggerated picture of its evolution from a “purely traditional activity… now transformed to a commercial enterprise”.

However, the estimated one million marine (coastal) fishermen still pursue their occupation predominantly as marginalised socio-economic outliers. They labour at sea because this is their only livelihood. The transition from artisanal vessels to mechanised boats has not brought better earnings and working conditions, greater control over their produce, reduced dependence on the merchant class or lower levels of indebtedness – all of which the policy admits to.

Coastal competition

The policy is also silent on the stiff competition they face over space, both at sea and on land for a place to live in. On land, they are pushed out by development projects – power plants, tourism, upmarket housing – that are given priority. At sea, the threat is from the forces of nature and improperly designed coastal infrastructure.

The policy makes no mention of the Coastal Zone Regulation Notification – which although a weak legal instrument is still the only legal protection to the natural coast that prevents its wholesale takeover for non-fisheries activities.

This competitive use of the coast signals one of the greatest threats to the future of marine fisheries.

Please click here to read more.

Scroll.in, 8 July, 2017, https://scroll.in/article/842300/small-scale-fishermen-form-the-backbone-of-indias-fisheries-sector-but-policy-is-silent-on-them


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close