Something Fishy
The strike by the fishing trawler community in protest over the hike in diesel price by the Centre which has included their business in commercial category instead of under the agriculture category as earlier has brought the issues of the fishing community into focus. But this is also a golden opportunity for the government to review the performance of the fishing sector and balance it with consumer interests. Here has been no effective mechanism in place to ensure fair pricing of fish for common citizens in Goa. All along, those willing to pay a higher price walked off with premium quality fish. Now that’s fine to an extent ~ that’s the point of free market in the first place, which we support fully ~ but there has been a pattern of monopolistic and restrictive trade practices at work in the sector.
For, when even non-premium fish that is every Goan’s staple diet begins to command a “premium” the logic of a free and fair market gets vitiated. No wonder, at fish markets and fishing jetties, NRIs, exporters, affluent settlers and local residents, foreigners and even tourists (through the hotel/restaurant route) residing in Goa are the principal beneficiaries of top-grade fish, leaving the vast mass of the Goan people with the fish bones, in a manner of speaking. And that too at an exorbitant price.
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Admittedly, the diesel hike will adversely impact those in fishing business ~ primarily the trawler owners ~ because this segment is the one which really speaking does the donkey’s work by way of investment, labour and risk, while the middleman are the biggest beneficiaries in the trade. It is also true that the middlemen have in the quest for profits created a vicious animosity with the consumer. Today, if indeed there is any public sympathy, it is for those who do the actual work at personal risk and not for those who have only made themselves rich at the cost of the fisher folk and the consumer or end-user.
But even within the fishing trawler community, there are issues that need to be addressed. Take the case of the number of trawlers along Goa’s 104 kms coastal stretch. The late Matanhy Saldanha, the pioneer of the fishing movement, had been repeatedly warning the sector of over-exploitation of sea wealth as a result of the indiscriminate licences issued to trawlers. The conflicts in the 1970s and subsequent decades led to traditional fishermen and trawler owners being at loggerheads. The burning of trawlers, fishing nets and canoes were an indicator, in a way, of greed versus sustainable fishing. Greed won, with thousands of traditional ramponkars displaced from their profession. With trawler fishing going from strength to strength, what we have today is the State heading towards a fish famine. This is primarily due to over-fishing by trawlers and mechanized boats, and somebody has to say it.
So is the strike over the virtual withdrawal of diesel subsidy a step towards natural justice? Admittedly, Goans have failed to safeguard their natural wealth. We have seen this in the mining sector, where a great churning is currently underway. It may not be a bad idea to let the fishing sector too undergo this churning process. The State government’s move to provide a dole with our money, i.e. from the public exchequer, to those displaced from jobs as a result the ban on illegal mining when it ought to have ensured that this dole came from those who have benefited most from the industry, that is the owners of hugely profitable private mining companies, is a not an idea that has enthused the people at large. And it does beg the question, why did successive governments not offer any such dole to displaced, traditional fishermen after trawlers were offered fishing licenses left, right and centre? The empathy for them now, from across the political spectrum, is a bit late in the day.
Evidently, the human species, and specifically the Goan, has failed to understand the concept of sustainable living. That too in a so-called progressive State. To strike a midly subversive note, perhaps we ought to welcome the trawlers’ strike for a different reason ~ which is, that the over-exploitation of the sea which has been going on for decades will at least temporarily be halted!
At another level, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s claim during the last Assembly session that he would start a government outlet where fish would be sold at realistic prices so as to enable the common man too to avail of fish for his table is yet to take off. Simultaneously, we may add, there is no harm if fish is not on the menu on a couple of days in a week at least during the spawning season for the sea and the stock to regenerate. There is no instant gratification on the path of sustainable living. So what if fish is not available on our menu for a few days? Nobody is going to die without fish. Of course, it’s integral to our diet, but then the situation calls for a silent revolution for a better tomorrow. And the revolution ought to start from within, by us the end-users, by moderating our eating habits to inculcate a culture of sustainability. Goa’s natural wealth cannot be perpetually exploited for the benefit of a few. Time for a revolution of the palate!
