The New Nation - Internet Edition

A T M Nurun Nabi

The fishermen living in the coastal districts send their children to the coastal islands, including Dublar Char, for work that they will support their guardians in these hard days. They cannot send their children to schools because they have no means to do it. But surprisingly these children are treated as if they were slaves. They get very nominal wage and little food. In this backdrop, opening of small-scale income generating projects, in the coastal areas as done in North Bengal, may be some sort relief to the hard-core poverty stricken fishermen.

Fishermen living in the coastal areas have become ransom in the hands of the moneylenders and the trawler owners. Our Borguna correspondent Zakir Hossain from Borguna over phone said there are approximately 50 to 60 thousand fishermen in Borguna and Patuakhali districts.

They form teams, comprising 10 to 15 members for each team, independent of others but cannot find means to go to sea or the rivers for fishing. At this they take trawler from its owner, and a cash of taka 50,000 as loan from the moneylender for purchase of fuel and food items sufficient for month long consumption. The condition is that the fish they will catch will be divided into three equal portions--one for the trawler-owner, one for the moneylender and the third portion for their own.

In case of poor fishing, they face dense troubles. If the price of fish of each portion is short of borrowed money, they give away from their portion or mortgage what they have and thus lose everything. The next time they again borrow money and finally they sink in debt wherefrom there is no way-out.

Another danger comes from the pirates, who loot fishing apparatus, fish and hard cash, if any. Sometimes, the pirates kill them, kidnap and demand, as ransom, a good amount of money from their relatives. In this way, the fishermen become proletariat. They cannot send their children to schools, nor buy warm clothes for them, nor can provide rich food, even once in a year. Some NGOs watching their miseries, alluring of better future, give loans with the view to encroaching upon their last resort as they cannot repay loan in most cases.

To this, some fishermen defying government's sanction catch jhatka (small hilsha fish less than nine inches) and market successfully with the help of greedy moneylenders and the wholesale traders. They do it finding no other means to survive. The practice of catching jhatka cannot be changed overnight. A social movement may bring good result. A buyer said, "We can apply our consciousness by never buying jhatka and convincing the fish sellers of the merits of not catching jhatka. I am sure if we try to convince them about the far-reaching good impact of the sanction, some of them, if not all, will join us. In this way, our effort may take the shape of social movement someday or other.

The government in this regard can arrange alternative jobs, as it did in North Bengal's monga-hit areas, for the fishermen when they cannot go to fishing during inclement weather for security concern or fearing attack of the pirates. For taking some good steps, including opening of income generating projects at the monga-prone areas, the poor people are getting relief to some extent and are earning taka 100 daily. Similar kind of project may be introduced in coastal districts like Borguna and Patuakhali

In this regard, it may be said that the donor agencies, the World Bank, the IMF, the Asian Bank, some NGOs and the government itself cry for changing the fate of women making them part of development. But sadly they show little interests to augment the financial condition of thousands of fishermen living in the coastal areas. It is because the economy of Bangladesh is quasi-capitalistic and quasi-feudalistic.