Chennai's fisherfolk say they’re swimming against tide

CHENNAI: As people across the world celebrated World Fisheries Day on Monday, there was little to cheer for the two lakh strong fishing community along Chennai’s coast. Its members say their livelihood is under threat from foreign trawlers.
R Bhaskar, who spends the 45-day fishing ban in April-May helping build fishing vessels, said their demands had been ignored for years. “There is little to celebrate.Since we have no job security, we have been demanding that we be brought under the Schedule Tribes category so that we can avail the special benefits,” he said.
Earlier in the day, fishermen community representatives from 11 maritime states, including Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Odisha, took out a protest march towards Parliament. During the march, flagged off by former defence minister A K Antony, they raised slogans against ‘ocean grabbing’, alleging that the Centre was allowing multinational fishing firms take over the Indian coastline.
National Fishworkers Forum chairman M Ilango, who organised the protest march, said, “The central government’s policies are aimed at displacing the traditional fishermen from the coastline where they have lived for generations.” The fishermen body, along with others across the country, had opposed the Meenakumari Commission report’s recommendations in framing deep-sea fishing regulations last year.
“After we opposed the Meenakumari report which favours foreign trawlers, the central government told us the policy on deep-sea fishing will be altered to favour us. But there has been development since,” said Ilango, an ex-MLA from Puducherry. The Dr Ayappan Committee report submitted to the Centre in July made recommendations in favour of traditional fishermen but they were never released.
The protesters also opposed setting up of atomic power stations, thermal power plants, petrochemical industries and commercial ports. “We oppose the four units proposed at Kudankulam nuclear power plant and Inayam port,” Ilango said.