The Hindu
 
Mangalore, Jul 11: The fishermen will have more money in their hands in the next monsoon to tide over the lean period if they enrol themselves for the Union Government’s Saving-cum-Relief Scheme.

At present, they are getting an assistance of Rs. 600 for the four-month lean period (June to September), provided they retain a matching amount in their savings accounts. This assistance is being shared equally by the State and Central governments. The Centre and the State governments have decided to double their contributions, according to Deputy Director of Fisheries Sureshkumar Uallal. He told The Hindu that the scheme would be launched in September and the payment would begin from next June. Under the revised scheme, fishermen, who save Rs. 600 would get back a total of Rs. 1,800.

Every year, fishing by trawl boats and purse-seine boats is prohibited between mid-June and mid-August to facilitate fish breeding. This prohibition affects the income of fishing community adversely. Women, who procure fish from the fish landing sites and sell them outside to make a living out of this income, are the worst hit. Under the new scheme, marine fishermen have to save Rs.75 a month for eight months in a year. Their savings for eight months will be Rs. 600. The Central and State governments will contribute matching amounts and disburse Rs. 1,800 to them, under the new scheme. However, this amount will be paid in four instalments of Rs.300. The interest accrued will be paid with the fourth instalment. The scheme is open to fishermen, who are professionally engaged in full-time fishing in sea, and are members of any cooperative society/federation/welfare society, and are below poverty line. In Karnataka those having an annual income of less than Rs. 22,000 are given the below poverty line tag. Those owning mechanised fishing boat or beach-landing craft, and above 60 years are not eligible to avail the scheme. If any member of a fisherman’s family has regular employment, such family also cannot avail it. Under the scheme, the Fisheries Department here has distributed Rs. 25.47 lakh to 4,245 fishermen in Dakshina Kannada and Rs. 40.12 lakh to 7,733 fishermen in Udupi district this year. The department has sent the proposal to the Union and State governments seeking matching grants, sources in the department said.

Vasudev Boloor, general secretary of the Coastal Karnataka Fishermen’s Action Committee, and joint secretary of the National Fish Workers’ Forum, said that even Rs. 1,800 would be too meagre. A large number of women, who sold fish after procuring them from the fish landing sites, were in need of this assistance. The Government should be generous in helping them because they were the stabilising factors in their households, he said.

Mr. Boloor said that the Union Government should immediately implement the recommendations of the M.S. Swaminathan-led National Commission on Farmers, which had stated that both Union and State governments should provide Rs. 1,500 each as assistance to these fishermen for the lean period. The commission had also suggested that the savings by the fishers during the eight months should become Rs. 1,500 to avail the benefit of the scheme. Fishermen were ready for this. If the commission’s recommendations were to be accepted and implemented, a large number of fishermen would join the scheme, he said.