India: Fishing industry workers demand better security, conditions

A delegation of the All India Fishers and Fisheries Workers' 
Federation has met with the Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and 
presented a memorandum on the demands of fishermen and fishery 
workers. Pointing out that the country was losing huge amounts of 
foreign exchange because of the operation of foreign trawlers in 
India's territorial waters, the delegation demanded that foreign 
trawlers should be banned and their licences cancelled.

The memorandum also raised the pathetic living and working 
conditions of fishing industry workers and demanded that 
comprehensive legislation be enacted providing them job security, 
minimum wages, safety, social security, maternity benefits, 
housing facilities, insurance and compensation.

Other demands included: supply of diesel and kerosene at subsided 
rates, provision of the old age pension, protection of migrant 
fishery workers, education facilities for the children of 
fishermen and fishery workers, development of fish markets, 
fishing harbours, cold storage facilities, construction and 
maintenance of protective walls against sea erosion.

The workers want a single ministry to deal with all aspects of 
the fishing industry, a tripartite all India industrial committee 
should be formed on fishing and the Government should allot more 
funds for the overall development of the fishing industry, they 
said.

The importance of protecting the bodies of water belonging to the 
central and state governments was emphasised and the delegation 
demanded that only the fishing industry cooperatives should be 
able to use government-owned waterways for fishing activities.