It was World Fisheries Day on Wednesday, but fishermen in the south Indian State of Tamil Nadu have little reason to celebrate this year, having braved cyclone Nilam, only to lose their boats and their livelihood, and the bullets of the Sri Lankan navy. Several fishermen remain locked up in jails in the island nation. But few in the community face as a fate as miserable as the families of fishermen lost at sea.
Five families of Kasimedu fishermen, who died or went missing at sea, are in dire straits. They have not received compensation from the government as yet. Those whose relatives have not been confirmed dead cling to the hope that their loved ones may be alive despite overwhelming odds against the possibility. For these families, there has been no closure.
For 55-year-old Arputham, it has been a long wait. Her son Jaikumar, 27, cast out to sea with other fishermen in 2005. While the group was fishing off the Andhra Pradesh coast, their boat collided head-on with another vessel, sparking a blaze. Five fishermen jumped into the sea and somehow managed to return to shore. Jaikumar’s fate is not known. “My son looked after me. Now I have to fend for myself,” Arputham said, sobbing uncontrollably. “The government should speed up the payment of compensation. Police refused to give me a copy of the status report on my son so I cannot apply for compensation.”
She removed a photograph of Jaikumar from a wall of the shack she stays in and dusted it with her saree. “He was such a handsome and loving son,” Arputham said. “The hardest thing to deal with is that we don’t know if he is alive or dead.” Two other families in Kasimedu face a similar predicament. Fishermen Manikandan and Suresh went missing at sea in 2009 and their families do not know if they will see them again.
Another family in the locality lost its breadwinner five years ago. Desam’s husband, Sekar, died in a fire in a mechanised boat on March 30, 2005. Desam, 40, has two children. She does a small business, selling dry fish to eke out a living. “We hope the government sees our plight. I have no clue what the future holds for my daughters and me,” she said.
“Fishermen are the most deprived of all communities,” said South Indian Fishermen Welfare Association president K Bharathi. He said the fishermen’s families will meet the collector on Wednesday to submit their demands again.
2012 Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.