The beleaguered Gujarat fishermen community who live along side the 1,600 km long coastline across the state can expect some succor in the coming days.
The beleaguered Gujarat fishermen community who live along side the 1,600 km long coastline across the state can expect some succor in the coming days for their numerous trade related issues, thanks to the initiative by the Gujarat National Law University (GNLU) at Gandhinagar, which is all set to ease the fishing industry’s problems and help these fishermen tackle such issues.
Various issues — from the decreasing catch to mounting security pressures after 26/11 and many other decade old legal issues, have plagued the community endlessly in recent times. Under Bimal Patel, director of the law varsity, a team of legal and fisheries experts along with 15 students will visit coastal villages of the state where they will deal with various issues related to the fishermen and the fishing industry.
The move towards alleviation of the fishing community has been taken under the Gujarat government’s Sagarkhedu Sarvangi Vikas Yojana, and is supported by United Nations Conference of Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Under this project, the fishermen would be trained in the use of modern equipments and techniques, and other skills of the fishing industry. While, the GNLU will help prepare a blueprint for initiation and realisation of efforts and it will submit the proposal to the Gujarat government and subsequently to UNCTAD.
The committee comprises three GNLU teachers, namely, Dr Tarkesh Molia, law faculty, B Balajirao, fisheries expert and Viral Pandya, management faculty and 15 students who are going to assist in the project.
Tarkesh Molia, convener of the project and faculty of GNLU, said, “There are various issues which we are going to deal with. However, the most important part of the project is to help the fisherman community in terms of legal aid, developing fishing trade and enhancing the techniques of fishing by providing training with the help of UNCTAD and other NGOs which are working for the community and the corporate world.”
According to the state government estimates there are 1,72,359 active fishermen while there are 970 village with around 90,000 fishermen households. According to Vishnu Swaminathan, a resource person for this committee, in recent times there are number of problems generated by indiscriminate fishing, unchecked by law, combined with import ban by European countries.
All these problems have forced the fishing industry into a crisis. “The breeding grounds of economically important fish and shrimp varieties have been devastated by factors such as pollution and mangrove destruction among others,” said Balajirao, adding that the migration patterns of fish in the coastal water also need to be understood a little better.
“We are going to start a sort of campaign to inculcate awareness of legal, environmental and health issues related to fishing community and fishing industry,” said Molia. He further said that since most of the fishermen are illiterate, they are ignorant of laws that are essential for the trade and security.
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