A statement issued by the National Fishworkers’ Forum (NFF) states “We have once again come to the capital to urge upon the Government and the people of India and their representatives that we have been rendered to the status of "endangered species" and are racing fast to the verge of extinction. The nation has a responsibility to see that we too have a right to live a decent and peaceful life.”

The indefinite dharana of the fishworkers under the banner of NFF began in New Delhi on 25 April 2005. The sit-in demonstration was aimed at pressing for the longstanding demands and fulfillment of promises made by the past two consecutive governments. One of the major demands of the struggling fishworkers is restoration of the livelihood of their fraternity in Jambudwip, West Bengal. The demonstration sought to bring to the fore the issues of loss of livelihood of thousands of fish workers in Jambudwip and in coastal Orissa. The Central Empowered Committee constituted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests directed the West Bengal government to remove the fish workers from the island by 31 March 2003 and not to allow them any fishing activity without prior permission of the central government. Since then, about 10,000 fish workers have been rendered jobless.

Another major demand of the fish workers is for the supply of kerosene to small and traditional fish workers at the PDS rate. Present government guidelines restrict supply of kerosene for PDS only to cooking and illumination. There is no separate kerosene allocation for the fisheries sector.

Fish workers also requested the government to facilitate the creation of the National Disaster Management Authority as an autonomous body on the lines of Election Commission as suggested by a Parliament Sub-committee.

The other NFF demands were: Stepping up grant and expediting tsunami rehabilitation; stopping import of foreign fishing vessel; ban on industrial aquaculture; enacting fishing regulation for Exclusive Economic Zones; scrapping the Sethusamudram project; protecting and conserve fishing grounds from oil exploration; scrapping the Umbergaon port project; waiving of road tax on diesel for fishing boats; stopping eviction of fisherpeople in the name of development; release of fishermen and fishing boats from the custody of Pakistan; accepting fish workers as part of marine ecosystem; protecting shark, turtle as well as fish workers; implementing the Coastal Regulation Zone notification of 1991 and framing legislation empowering the fisher people to own and manage water bodies.

The agitation received the support of several eminent leaders cutting across party lines. The demonstrating fishworkers were visited by MPs from different states and also by Kerala Chief Minister Ummen Chandy.

Delegations of NFF met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chairperson of the National Advisory Committee, Sonia Gandhi, in their respective offices in Parliament House. “Both the leaders assured the delegation that the demands of the fish workers will be considered positively. They assured that the issues of restoring livelihood of the 10,000 Jambudwip fish workers; supply of kerosene and release of fish workers and fishing boats from Pakistani custody will be treated with immediate priority,” says Harekrishna Debnath, Chairperson of NFF.

NFF delegations also met the Minister of Environment and Forests, A Raja and Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, E V K S Elagovan, and discussed the issues pertaining to their ministries. “The Ministry of Environment is not in favour of fish workers on the Jambudwip issue. It is not bothered that 10,000 fish workers have been left helpless because of the ban in drying fish,” says Thomas Kocherry, Executive Committee Member of NFF and a permanent invitee of World Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP). “They are more Romans than Romans are. For them it has become a very prestigious issue. A positive initiative is difficult from their part,” he says.

NFF representatives held an elaborate and thorough discussion with the senior officials of the Ministry of Agriculture on the issues pertaining to this nodal ministry. “Several outstanding issues like increase of grants for social security schemes like relief-cum-savings scheme, old-age pension and accident insurance benefits, development of fish landing centres, provision of support for motorisation of traditional boats, implementation of uniform monsoon trawl ban and enactment of a National Marine Regulation Act for the entire EEZ have been sorted out”, says Debnath. “The Ministry has assured that all the existing programmes for the small scale fishermen will be implemented strictly and expeditiously,” he adds.

“In the context of the assurances offered by the Ministry of Agriculture and in the light of the outcome of the meetings with the different ministries, we decided to call off the strike,” says N D Kohli, General Secretary of NFF. The NFF national executive committee decided to call off the indefinite agitation from 29 April 2005 and asked all fish workers to return to their normal work. However, NFF urged them to remain vigilant to ensure that the assurances were being followed up by the administration.