People's Democracy

CITU- AIKS Organise First Conference of AIFFWF

Fishermen participating in the rally of the first conference of AIFFWF

K Hemalata

THE first conference of the All India Fishers and Fisheries Workers’ Federation (AIFFWF) was held in Thiruvananthapuram on March 24 – 25, 2007. The venue was named after Imbichhi Bawa Nagar, the veteran leader of fishers and the trade union movement in the state. The dias was named ‘Mohammed Zahidi Manch’ in memory of Com Zahidi, who was a veteran leader of the Kisan movement and a member of parliament, who took lot of interest in organising the fishers and developing an all India movement on their demands.

The All India Kisan Sabha and the Centre of Indian Trade Unions have taken the decision, of historic significance in the development of worker peasant alliance, to jointly organise the fishers and fisheries workers in the country. A national convention was held in Mohanpura in Nadia district of West Bengal six years back, in 2001, and an organising committee was formed with Pitabasan Das, veteran leader of the fishers in West Bengal, as the convenor. However, for a long period of six years, this initiative could not be taken to the next stage of holding the national conference and giving shape to an effectively functioning organisational structure. This has been achieved by holding this first conference.

MK Pandhe, president of CITU and K Varadha Rajan, general secretary of the AIKS participated and guided the conference. 281 delegates from 8 states – Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Karnataka, Kerala, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and West Bengal - attended the conference. 27 of them were women. Kiranmoy Nanda, minister for fisheries in the Left Front government of West Bengal also participated in the conference. 

The conference started on March 24 with the simultaneous hoisting of the AIKS and CITU flags on the same pole by K Varadha Rajan and MK Pandhe and paying homage at the martyrs’ column. 

V Sivan Kutty, MLA and the chairman of the reception committee welcomed the delegates. The conference paid homage to Chittabrata Majumdar, general secretary of the CITU, Mehboob Zahidi, vice president of AIKS and a member of the organising committee of the AIFFWF, Nirendra Das, state committee member of the fishers’ organisation in Tripura, Hrishikesh Maiti from West Bengal and to the thousands of tsunami victims, by observing silence for one minute. 

The presidium comprised Abdur Razzak Molla, the Land Reforms minister from West Bengal, MM Lawrence, secretary of CITU and the general secretary of its Kerala state committee, Hemachandran, veteran CITU leader from Tamil Nadu, Sukumar Barman, former minister for Fisheries in the Left front government in Tripura, and Hemalata, secretary of CITU. A resolutions committee consisting of VV Saseendran from Kerala, Sudhan Das from Tripura, Karunanidhi from Tamil Nadu and Tushar Ghosh from West Bengal and a credential committee consisting of L Balakrishna, G Rajan Das from Kerala, Ramesh Gayan from West Bengal and Abhiram Behera were elected by the conference. Sheila Rozario single handedly managed the minutes.

Inaugurating the conference Pandhe highlighted the plight of the fishers who have been neglected by the successive governments at the centre. He pointed out that thousands of fishers were losing their lives in natural calamities like storms, cyclones etc because of lack of proper warning systems for alerting them in time. The fishers who were mostly illiterate could not identify the international borders; sometimes they stray into foreign waters due to strong winds. They are arrested by the neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka etc and kept in jails. The government of India refuses to take responsibility in such cases and leaves them to their fate. Pandhe demanded that the central government should come to some agreement with the neighbouring countries to protect such fishers. He called upon the conference to take up sustained campaigns and struggles on the demands of the fishers and fisheries workers.

Pitabasan Das, convenor of the organising committee initiated the placing of the report and emphasised the importance of building a strong organisation. He urged the delegates to overcome the existing weaknesses in their respective organisations and strengthen the organisation. He requested the delegates to allow Hemalata to place the rest of the report on his behalf, because of his indifferent health. 

Taking over from Pitabasan Das, Hemalata said that despite India being the third largest producer of fish in the world and the second largest producer of fresh water fish, next only to China, the conditions of the fishers in the country was pathetic. India was earning more than Rs 6,000 crores by exporting fish. The sector provides employment to more than 75 lakh people, through both marine and inland fisheries. Around 3 crore people, either directly or indirectly depend on this sector for their livelihood. Around 30 percent of the workers in this sector are women.

The liberalisation policies had their imprint on this sector also. The government allowed foreign trawlers, which were over exploiting the fish resources. As a result, the traditional fishers were not getting enough catch for their survival. Despite the recommendations of the Murari committee to ban foreign trawlers, the government continues to allow them in our waters. The fishing sector has become a hub of mafia groups, which control the cooperatives; but the government remains a silent spectator. The callous attitude of the government is reflected in the fact that despite repeated demands from the fishers’ organisations, till now there is no ministry to deal with such an important sector.

The fishers live a risky life; every time they venture into the sea, there is no guarantee of their return. The poor fishers do not have enough safety equipment to protect themselves. The ILO has calculated that while the fishers form 1percent of the world’s population, they account for 7 percent of occupational deaths. Large numbers of them become permanently disabled. The report also spoke about the pitiable conditions of the fisheries workers. Tens of thousands of women are engaged in peeling, grading and preserving fish. Young women from Kerala are employed in peeling prawns and grading them for big exporters. They are forced to live in dingy rooms with no basic facilities. They face sexual harassment. They have to work in dirty, foul smelling and congested places without any protective equipment.

The convenor’s report emphasised the need to build a strong countrywide organisation, strengthening and consolidating it and expanding to newer areas and states.

Kiranmoy Nanda placed the charter of demands and explained the importance of these. He also informed the delegates the measures taken by the Left Front government in West Bengal to provide some relief and benefits to the fishers in the state. 

NK Shukla, secretary of the AIKS placed the draft constitution.

13 delegates representing all the states present in the conference took part in the discussion and contributed in enriching the report. Many of them emphasised the importance of a strong organisation for developing sustained campaigns. 

Summing up the discussions, Hemalata congratulated the participants for their valuable suggestions and clarified some points raised in the discussions, after which the report along with the charter of demands was unanimously adopted. The conference authorised the new committee to finalise the constitution keeping in view the suggestions made in the conference.

The conference unanimously passed several resolutions on the protection of fishers straying into international waters, provision of timely warning system, ban on import of fish under the WTO agreement, the social oppression of the fishers, the problems of the inland fishers, of the fish vendors and fisheries workers. 

The conference decided to mobilise fishers and fisheries workers for the demonstrations on the All India Demands’ Day on April 18, called by the CITU, AIKS and AIAWU. It has also decided to observe May 15 as the All India Demands’ Day to focus the problems of the fishers and fisheries workers.

The conference decided to form a 45 member national committee with 15 office bearers; a 32 member national committee was elected, which in turn elected 13 office bearers. Pitabasan Das, Hemalata and Nurul Huda were elected as the president, general secretary and treasurer of the federation. 

Varadha Rajan described the conference as a historical one, being jointly convened by the AIKS and CITU. He exhorted the delegates to maintain constant touch with the fishers and fisheries workers and address their day-to-day local problems and emphasised the importance of developing a strong countrywide organisation. He assured that the Kisan Sabha would extend all the necessary help and support to the AIFFWF.

An impressive rally was organised on the evening of March 24 in the Gandhi Park, which was presided by Lawrence. The chief minister of Kerala, Achuthanandan inaugurated the rally; MK Pandhe, the state fisheries minister Sharma, chairman of MATSYAFED Saseendran, Mercy Kutty Amma, vice president of CITU and others addressed the gathering.