THE National Convention on Meena Kumari Committee Recommendations on Deep Sea Fishing Policy and Guidelines demanded the Government of India to reject the recommendations and immediately rescind the government order dated November 12, 2014 and the guidelines on deep sea fishing issued by it on November 28. The National Convention was held by All India Fishers and Fisheries Workers’ Federation (AIFFWF) in the coastal city of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh on June 18, 2015. Around 100 leaders and cadres of AIFFWF from the six coastal states of West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Kerala and also from Tripura participated in the convention which was presided over by Tushar Ghosh, president of AIFFWF. Dr John Kurien, former UN/FAO Fisheries Management Advisor in Cambodia and Indonesia spoke on the government policies on deep sea fishing, the threat to traditional fishers’ livelihood posed by the government order and the guidelines and the need to protect the livelihood of the traditional fishers. Hemalata, general secretary, AIFFWF made the introductory remarks and said that the government order and guidelines on deep sea fishing must be seen in the context of the overall neo-liberal policies pursued by the BJP led Modi government. Land is being snatched away from the farmers, adivasis are being deprived of their rights over their mineral rich lands, and the forest dwellers are being denied their rights under the Forest Act. The government was amending the labour laws to take away the hard won rights of the workers. All this is being done by the government to benefit the big national and foreign corporates, big business houses and real estate mafias. The government is not working for the toiling people who produce wealth but for the rich who appropriate the wealth. Different sections of the working people are coming out in struggles against these policies. The workers, both in the organised sector as well as in the unorganised sectors, belonging to all the central trade unions are going on a country wide general strike on September 2, 2015. The peasants are also joining together in united struggles. She said that fishers too have to come together and develop a strong movement to force the government to withdraw the November 2014 order and guidelines. She also urged upon the fishers all over the country to join the struggle of the different sections of the people against the government policies and participate in massive demonstrations focussing their own demands and supporting the demands of the others. Representatives of other national federations of fishers affiliated to AITUC and BMS, and several NGOs working among fishers, also participated in the convention and supported the initiative taken by AIFFWF for the rejection of Meena Kumari Committee recommendations and the withdrawal of the government order and guidelines on deep sea fishing. VV Saseendran, treasurer of AIFFWF introduced the Declaration which was unanimously adopted after several delegates spoke in support of it. AIFFWF thanked the AP state committees of the fishers’ organisation and the CITU who made good arrangements for the convention. The national working committee of AIFFWF which met later decided to organise state, district and block level conventions wherever possible and village level meetings to take the message of the convention to the fishers up to the grass root level and mobilise them in the demonstrations on September 2 in a big way. It was also decided to focus on the problems of the other sections of fishers like the inland fishers, fish vendors and fish processing workers, link them up with the government policies and mobilise them in the fight against the anti-people policies of the BJP government. DECLARATION THIS National Convention of Fishers strongly opposes the recommendations of the Meena Kumari Committee on Deep Sea Fishing Policy and Guidelines and demands the government of India to reject these recommendations. Most of these recommendations favour the corporate groups and foreign investors facilitating exploitation of the rich marine fish resources in our Exclusive Economic Zone by them. They are arbitrary, without any scientific basis and are detrimental to the interests of our traditional fishers. The Meena Kumari Committee recommendations have met with strong opposition from the fishers and their representative organisations all over the country as well as many fisheries experts. This convention expresses its deep concern that despite such widespread resistance, the ministry of agriculture, department of animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries of the government of India, has not withdrawn its order dated November 12, 2014 and the new guidelines for deep sea fishing issued on November 28, 2014 in line with the Meena Kumari Committee recommendations, despite its assurance that these would be rejected. These new deep sea fishing guidelines have changed the definition of ‘deep sea fishing vessels’ by reducing the Over All Length (OAL) to 15 metres from the existing 20 metres. Now all vessels above OAL of 15 metres have to obtain written letters of permission (LOP) from the government to fish in the Exclusive Economic Zone, which was not required earlier. They have to get voyage clearance from the Indian Coast Guard for each fishing voyage. The definition of ‘operator’ has been extended to include ‘joint ventures’ with up to 49 percent foreign equity. It has made the procedure for engaging foreign crew easier doing away with the need to take prior clearance from the government of India. The near shore and off shore areas of the sea are the natural abode of the small, medium and large size fishes which are mostly preferred in the domestic as well as the export markets. Fishing in these areas is mostly done by the traditional fishers by using their non motorised, motorised and mechanised fishing crafts. Majority of those working in these crafts are traditional fishers. Creating a buffer zone between 200m and 500m depth sea area will hamper the fishing rights of the traditional fishers. Entry of foreign vessels and recruitment of foreign crew is being promoted on the pretext that Indian fishers do not have the expertise for deep sea fishing. This is not based on facts and is totally misleading. A large number of Indian traditional fishers are engaged in deep sea fishing. It is well known that the fishers of Tamilnadu, Kerala and Karnataka are exceptionally skilled in deep sea fishing. The traditional skills of Thoothur fishers of Tamilnadu are internationally acknowledged. It is to be noted that while the traditional fishers of Thoothur harvest around 45000 tonnes annually from the deep sea region, the LOP vessels report an annual catch of only 1900 tonnes. To develop and enhance such skills further and expand our deep sea fishing capacity, Indian fishers should be provided necessary training for skill development. They should also be provided with cheap credit and financial incentives. This would result in job creation and development of our traditional fishers. Instead of doing this, promoting deep sea fishing by foreign vessels is not only against the interests of the traditional fishers but is also anti-national. By allowing mid sea transhipment of fish to other foreign ships, these companies are given the opportunity to even avoid providing the details of the catch to the Indian authorities. The new guidelines not only restrict access of our own fishers to our EEZ. What is dangerous is it allows foreign vessels of more than 15m OAL to compete with our fishers for fish resources, which any government concerned with the welfare of its people, should conserve for utilisation by its nation and its citizens. Our traditional fishers have been providing the people of the country, particularly the poor, with a cheap source of protein rich and healthy food. Several reports including the reports of the FAO of the UN point to the extreme situation of hunger and malnutrition in our country. In such a situation what is required is to encourage production of fish by our traditional fishers and promote domestic consumption, not exploitation and depletion of our fish resources by foreign companies for export. The Meena Kumari report negates the earlier Murari Committee report which recommended banning of foreign vessels for deep sea fishing in Indian EEZ. It recommended sustaining the marine resources along with protecting the interests of our traditional fishers. While the then government accepted the Murari Committee recommendations, no action was taken for their implementation. The eagerness shown by the government of India to implement the Meena Kumari Committee recommendations, while keeping in cold storage the erstwhile Murari Committee recommendations is part of the neo-liberal policy that is being pursued by successive governments since the last more than two decades. These policies have been leading to handing over our natural resources, not only our seas but also our land, our mines, our forests etc to the big national and multinational corporations, robbing the right to livelihood for lakhs of our fishers, peasants, forest dwellers etc. While opposing the Meena Kumari Committee recommendations, it is also necessary to oppose the neo-liberal policies and join the united struggles of all the sections of the toiling people resisting the adverse impact of these policies. Hence, this National Convention of Fishers demands the government of India to: 1. Totally reject the Meena Kumari Committee recommendations 2. Withdraw immediately the government order and the guidelines for deep sea fishing issued by the ministry of agriculture, department of animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries in November 2014 that allow foreign fishing vessels under LOP 3. Ban foreign fishing vessels in Indian EEZ. Foreign fishing vessels should not be permitted to fish in India’s EEZ under the LOP route, joint ventures or any other forms of agreements 4. Fishing vessels above 24m OAL should be defined as deep sea fishing vessels 5. Take measures to protect and preserve the fish resources in our EEZ for our traditional fishers 6. Develop the necessary infrastructure for landing of deep sea fishing vessels, safe berthing, cold chains etc to promote deep sea fishing in the country This convention calls upon all the coastal fishers in the country to come together to launch united struggles on the above demands. It also calls upon all the fishers in the country to join the united trade union movement against the anti-worker and anti-people policies of the government and participate en masse in the all India countrywide general strike on September 2, 2015.