The story of coastal village: Breadwinners, dependents, caught in the deep end

Representatives appeal to union, Fisher Folk Forum for govt intervention

THATTA/ HYDERABAD:

The coastal village of Yousuf Katiar in Thatta district has been surviving without many of its bread winners for quite some time. Some 47 fishermen from this small fishing village are imprisoned in Indian jails for their alleged maritime border violations.

According to village elder Siddiq Katiar, these fishermen were detained in five separate boats and at different times. Ten fishermen, along with their fishing boat Al-Hassan, were detained 22 months ago, eight in Allah Madad boat nine months ago, 15 in Jeay Gillani boat, eight in Al-Faizan boat and five in Al-Hassan boat eight months ago.

“All of them were responsible for the livelihood of their families, who now live at the mercy of others in the community,” said Katiar. He said the provincial or federal governments have so far neither helped in the repatriation of the fishermen nor supported the affected families financially.

Katiar and other villagers met Adam Gandro, leader of the fishermen’s union Mallah Ittehad, on Friday in Thatta and asked him to help bring the issue to the government’s notice. According to Ghani Katiar, the families of dozens of the arrested fishermen are finding it hard to afford even two meals a day. “Their small children are unable to go to the sea to fish. Their women have to count on their parents and village people to provide them food.”

Thousands of fishermen of the two countries are languishing in the jails after they were accused of crossing the imperceptible maritime borders along the disputed Sir Creek between Indian Gujarat and the Sindh province in Pakistan.

Representatives such as the Pakistan Fisher Folk Forum maintain that the arrests in both countries are a violation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982), which lays down a comprehensive regime of law and order in the world’s oceans and seas establishing rules governing all uses of the oceans and their resources. It enshrines the notion that all problems of ocean space are closely interrelated and need to be addressed as a whole.

Gandro said fishermen of the two countries have suffered the most due to the border dispute. “Since the two governments have so far failed to solve this dispute, they should at least ensure that the affected families are taken care of financially,” he said. He claimed that the families have not been provided access to the detained fishermen as they do not know which jails they are held in.

According to the Pakistani interior ministry, India has released 353 Pakistani fishermen in the last six years against a far higher number of 2,079 released from Pakistani prisons.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 31^st, 2014.