The New Nation - Internet Edition

Zakir Hossain from Borguna

About one hundred thousand fishermen living in five 'Jele Polli' (fisherman villages) situated in five upazillas of Borguna district have been leading extremely miserable life for long. Their earnings from fish catching are negligible with which it is really almost impossible to survive. Yet amid this, they under duress pay certain percents thereof to the wholesalers, certain percents to the moneylender and certain percents to the trawler owner. As a result, a little portion of their earnings remain in their hand.

The fishermen live on the embankment along the sea and newly emerged river shoals. About 10 to 25 fishermen live in one den. The fishing centres surface round these huts, which give them means of survival.

Ninety-eight percent fishermen are deprived of sanitation. They live in dampen environment, in rotten garbage. As the tube wells are at a distant place, they take bath in the nearby ponds and puddles, use that water in cooking foods and thus become attacked with water borne diseases.

Although there are community clinics and health centres, they prefer quack, fake kabiraj and ojha. When contacted, Hashem Miah, a fisherman, said, "As a good amount of money is required to go to hospitals, we avoid it. We have no idea about effectiveness of family planning and, as a result, most of us have seven to eight children."

In case of dispute over any matter, or in the cases of murder and dacoity, the fishermen approach the locally influential persons, instead of going to the Police Station, for settlement. In most cases, they get no justice; suffer both in money and position. The leaders of village panchayet mainly serve the interests of their own men. It is evident that the oppressed wife gets no compensation from the village panchayet, rebuked, rather the tormenter husband, is rewarded.

The fishermen living around the rivers of the Paira and the Agunmukha, and close to the sea coast gradually become ransom in the hands of the wholesalers and the moneylenders. They take loan in advance from them to purchase trawler and other fishing equipments but cannot pay back the borrowed amount with high rate of interest. Thus, they do what the wholesalers and the moneylenders desire and, thus, become serfs. Another fisherman Abul said, "We know that they exploit us and can take a little to home of what we earn, selling fish. We are really helpless. We cannot send our children to school. They are born in debt, grow in debt and die in debt."

A teacher on condition of anonymity said, "Poor earnings, debt, superstition, lack of government patronisation, pirate's torture, absence of education and security, dearth of sanitation and hygiene, children's uncertain future, and illiteracy are their regular phenomenon."