Celebrating his visit to Kanniyakumari for a 45-hour meditation at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial from Thursday evening until Sunday morning, BJP cadre and Narendra Modi’s supporters are fully behind him. The security measures have been too excessive though for the poor fishermen of Kanniyakumari who could not make ends meet anyway.
On Wednesday night, country boat fishermen left their home ports in Kanniyakumari and Vavathurai near Poompuhar Shipping Corporation jetty for fishing and came back ashore on Thursday with their catches but were warned not to go into the sea until Saturday.
“Our Parish Priest in Kanniyakumari was told by police on Wednesday to declare in church that fishing should be stopped on Thursday till Saturday because of Prime Minister’s trip to our locality. We had already lost ten days’ catch since May 16 due to adverse weather conditions. Now, three additional days have gone due to Mr. Modi’s visit,” lamented fisherman A. Wilson (52) of Kanniyakumari who has been in this job since age 16.
Indian Coast Guard ships and Indian Navy ships stationed around the southern tip of the country prevented them from reaching their usual fishing grounds which typically extend up to twelve nautical miles offshore where they trawl using fibre glass boats.
“In case we are caught by ICG or Indian Navy ships on high seas, crew first checks our identity cards. If we fail to identify ourselves they alert Coastal Security Group immediately about it against us. In view of this we confined our fishing activity only two nautical miles close from shore during Wednesday night resulting in low catches when we returned back home early next day morning Most traders did not come down here due to fear of stringent security arrangement and subsequent restricted movement thus making us get very poor prices for our catches on Thursday,” he said.
Fishermen received Rs 1500 per 15 kg catch of sardine, which was sold at Rs 4000 just few days ago.
The significant decrease in their prices emanating from a dip in buyers’ interest led to increasing poverty among fishermen. “My income per day decreased from rupees four thousand of Tuesday to just five hundred on Thursday,” added S. Rogers, a 46-year-old fisherman from Kanniyakumari.
Most country boat fishermen from Kanniyakumari are employed as crew on mechanised boats operating from Chinna Muttom Fishing Harbour. To sustain themselves during the annual fishing ban period for 60 days, ending on June 15 when mechanized boats are laid up, these fishermen return to country boats.
“Ten days of bad weather in mid-May passed and we were going back to work again. Unfortunately Mr. Modi disrupted our lives again. When one woman came down the beach yesterday evening with her grandchildren around nine fifteen p.m., policemen followed her home and checked her identity and reason for visiting the beach during twilight hours. It’s scary,” said Mr. Rogers.
As they talked about the challenges of managing their lives under the new security regime, Mr. Rogers and Mr. Wilson headed for the steps behind Our Lady of Ransom shrine in Kanniyakumari that lead to the beach. In a moment, however, police deployed near there rushed immediately towards them instructing them to stop.
Returning to their respective positions, one of them concluded by saying, “that’s what our freedom is now.”
