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print versionIn the run up to the Gujarat state legislative elections, the Congress party has promised Rs. 3 lakh as one-time financial assistance to the families of the arrested fishermen languishing in Pakistani jails. A daily allowance of Rs. 400 has also been promised and a compensation of Rs. 50 lakh for every boat seized by the Pakistani authorities.
Compensating the fishermen and their families for loss of livelihood is a welcome move, even if it is prompted by the electoral compulsions. There are over five lakh fishermen in Gujarat who along with their families constitute an important voting population. However, throwing money at the problem is unlikely to permanently resolve the issue, Bharat Bhushan writes.
There were 630 Indian fishermen from Gujarat in Pakistani jails on July 1 this year. The number of Pakistani fishermen in Indian custody was 95. The arrest of fishermen is a low priority issue for the Indian political class. Imagine what the national outcry would be, asks Jatin Desai a social activist and journalist working with the fishermen in Gujarat, if it were 630 IT professionals who had been kidnapped and jailed by Pakistani authorities.
Fishermen from both sides are accused of “crossing the border inadvertently” while fishing off the coast of Gujarat. This is an area where the maritime border between India and Pakistan remains unmarked because of an outstanding dispute about Sir Creek. So although no maritime border exists between India and Pakistan in the Gulf of Kutch, the Indian Coast Guard and Pakistan’s Maritime Security Agency regularly arrest fishermen and seize their boats from what each claims is “their part” of the sea. The arrested fishermen languish in jails for several years before their nationality is verified, consular access is given to them, their prison terms served and final repatriation to their home countries.
A google map screenshot of Sir Creek.
India and Pakistan exchange lists of prisoners twice a year – on January 1 and July 1 – Pakistan describes the arrested fishermen as “Indian or believed-to-be Indian” and India as “Pakistani or believed-to-be Pakistani”. On July 1, the number of Indian fishermen in Pakistan’s custody was 633. Three have died in jail since then – Kalu Vira on July 6, Ukabhai on August 27 and Jatinbhai on September 3.
Not all the Indian fishermen arrested are from Gujarat – increasingly a number of them are migrant workers from Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Thus in 2020, Pakistan relased 20 fishermen who were arrested off the coast of Kutch but were from Sirkakulam and Vizianagaram districts of Andhra. In November 2021 a fisherman from Maharashtra, Sridhar Ramesh Chamre, was shot dead and another from the state injured when Pakistan’s Maritime Security Agency fired at a boat that had sailed from Gujarat. On September 30, Pakistan seized two more Indian boats and arrested 16 fishermen, seven of them from Maharashtra.
The erosion of diplomatic ties between India and Pakistan has meant that many joint mechanisms such as the Joint Judicial Committee on Prisoners are in disarray, the communication and interaction between civil society in the two countries has been impaired and even goodwill exchange of prisoners is rare. Under these circumstances, fishermen who have completed their prison terms, continue to stay in jail and some even die while waiting to be repatriated.
Thus, for example, Nanoram, a Gujarat fisherman, competed his jail term in Pakistan on January 16, 2019 but died at a cardiovascular hospital in Karachi on February 3, 2022. His remains were sent to India on April 4, 2022. Kalu Vira whose body was sent to India on August 23 this year had competed his sentence in December 2021, he fell ill and died in Karachi in July 2022. Had his nationality been verified he may have been sent back to India after completing his sentence and his family would have seen him alive. The fate of Pakistani fishermen in Indian custody mirrors this process.
There is no evidence of fishermen from either side being involved in any anti-social activity. They stray into the maritime area claimed by the other country while chasing schools of fish. More Indian fishermen stray over to the other side because there is less on the Indian side. Rapid development along the coast of Gujarat has changed the ecological balance of the sea leading to pollution and destruction of fish habitats. A lot of fishing from the Kutch coast is also based on the incentivisation of the Tandels (Captains) of the fishing boats by their owners. This puts pressure on the crew (Tandel and the fish workers or Khalasis) to pursue higher volumes of catch. The economic rewards are lucrative enough for them to take the risk of straying into Pakistan’s territorial waters.
There are no piecemeal solutions possible to this problem. A number of humanitarian measures have been suggested after the fishermen are arrested: to seek early trial, quick verification of their nationalities and repatriation by sea instead of land (through the Wagha-Attari land border) so that their boats can also be returned. However, these are and will remain band-aid measures.
The two possible paths to a permanent solution are: cooperative fishing and resolving the Sir Creek dispute between India and Pakistan. Measures for cooperative fishing can include giving joint licences with quantity restrictions to fishermen from both countries. An institutionalised Maritime Economic Cooperation Agreement might also enable joint exploitation of other maritime resources in the sea. But such proposals are not even on the discussion table between India and Pakistan.
Demarcating the maritime boundary between India and Pakistan in the Gulf of Kutch will enable a permanent political solution to the problem. The dispute centres around differing interpretations of the boundary along the Sir Creek, a 96 km estuary which divides Pakistan’s Sindh province from Gujarat in India. In 2007, Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf had said that the Sir Creek boundary dispute could be resolved in 10 minutes. However, with the suspension of the composite dialogue between the two countries there has been no movement forward despite considerable agreement in the past on demarcating the maritime boundary from the seaward side (instead of from a land terminus, on which there is no agreement) and a joint survey of the estuary in 2007.
The dire state of bilateral ties means that previous attempts to reduce the size of the dispute by resolving at least the maritime boundary have been stalled. That would have been most useful for the fishermen of the two countries. Under these circumstances then, perhaps the election promise of the Congress party is all that the fishermen can hope for.
Bharat Bhushan is a journalist based in Delhi who may be reached at bharatbhushan11[at]gmail.com). Follow Bharat’s work on twitter at @bharatitis.
