Fisherfolk of Maryadpur

By V B Rawat

          Small rural town of Madhuban with an approximate population of fifty thousand people is budge with activities these days. About five years back when Social Development Foundation, a Delhi based organization working on the issue of rights of the marginalized started its land literacy programme which became an instant hit in many parts of Uttar-Pradesh as village folks like to train themselves and understand the intricacies of the land related problems. The poor fishermen of Maryadpur and surrounding 22 villages also came to our Human Rights training workshops in Madhuban, Mau and questioned us with a fairly important issue. ‘ You people talks of human rights, international laws and Indian constitution, but who cares for us. After all government says that they have this law, that law, this department, that department, but still we the poor people, the marginalized face, problems everywhere. We are looked down upon and our struggle continues. Your training is good but we need more help. Our Taal (lake) is is mismanaged and need a protection and if you could help us clean it and deepen it, perhaps the fishermen would be always be grateful to you.

As a human rights activist, this was a challenge before us and we took up this issue with International Land Coalition, based in Rome, whether we can work on some project, which empower the community with their participation. After nearly three years of consultation, we came out of a two year long project for the development of the Taal and empowerment of the community through their own methods and participation.
Taal Ratoy is a huge lake stretch over 10 kilometer and has spread over of about 1500 acres of land. Of this, 750 acre of land belong to farmers which is inundated in water and without use while rest 750 acre legally belong to 22 Gaon Machchua Mallah Samiti, a committee of 22 villagers fishermen. After struggling for over 30 years the water rights were legally given to 182 families of these 22 villages though over 1000 families fish here. Unfortunately, during the past fifty years, no body care for these fishermen and the condition started worsening. The water level in the summer would drop down to 2 ft and lake became a ‘Nullah’ with lot of stale and dirty water. Most of the youngsters from the village migrated to big cities of Mumbai, Delhi and elsewhere. Fishing was not lucrative and they started working as farm labourers and daily wageworkers.

With their disturbed economic condition, they approached us for support. And before we could start anything, it was decided that we would conduct three surveys of the village. Its socio-economic condition to understand the problem of the area. After the survey was done and our finding revealed that the situation was much worst than expected. Literacy rate was less 30% and among the women it was about 10%. A majority of them did not have land. With our training programme now showing some results people started coming to our meeting. But as usual there were other groups who were doing more politics and less work. Soon the ‘World Bank’ takes over theory started coming in and the Swadeshi heroes jumped in the bandwagon and thrashed several fishermen who were working with us. But with our deeper efforts, hard work, understanding of the social system, involving them in the participation, people started coming in and thus started a unique work in that area.

It was not just development that we were working on. The objective was changing the mindset and making them gender sensitive because unlike south India, participation of fisherwomen in their daily work was lesser here. May be because of Poorvanchal’s long oppression due to feudalism. At the outset of the globalisation verses Swadeshi debate; we talked of people’s interest. Nobody was interested in imposing our views on them. I for one region would always oppose the caste Panchayats that dominate our society. As a person, who has seen the violence on Dalits, Adivasis and women in this country, one need to say our villages need openness as Dr Ambedkar had opined. You cannot glorify the victimization of women under the garb of great cultural heritage of this country. And the fruits of work are visible now. Let me be emphatic here that we have to be rational in our approach not espouse the cause of political rhetoric’s. The poor in India predominantly belong to Dalit, backward and adivasi communities and need more protection, not only nationally but internationally as well. They are victims of both the Swadeshi caste system as well as corporatisation process that we are witnessing. They are sandwiched between the brahmanical Swadshi champion of different varieties and those ‘intellectuals’ from their own ‘biradari’ who feel if Americans come here everything will improve. A true human rights approach reject both kind of rhetoric’s and work on the basis of our own interest and international human rights laws. We are not here in a debate of anti and pro globalisation because the debate must be on the condition of poor in different regimes in India as well as the representation of the Dalits and minorities in different sectors including political parties as well as the so-called civil society organizations.

It is therefore important to rejoice the great women’s movement along with that of farmer’s now building up in the region and see how it became a possibility. Throughout the past few years, the forces of status quo never give an alternative to the people. Their only weapon is spicy slogans of globalisation and liberlisation as if being liberal and opening up your windows hurt. These slogans emanates from various outfits and ‘international’ organization that are funded by the religious groups worldwide and those who pose as if they are the only people worried about the people and more patriotic than the others.

SDF’s work in Mau highlight how such forces of parochialism could be fought with greater vision and transparency in our approach. >From none to every one, we have traveled a lot amidst this. It gives a lot to our fishermen friends who had despite all pressure put their thought in our vision and aspire to learn more. Despite the fact that SDF itself had problem in managing the thing with the local NGOs, it was the fisherfolk who realized our intention and faith. They worked in rain, in summers and in winter so that this huge lake could be made workable. Remember, this Taal is too big for work yet whatever little we could do we did it with mass participation. Because in terms of knowledge, we generated was enormous and people started coming to us when they realized our good intention.

When the work in the first phase completed last year in September and work had to be stopped for various reasons including chilled winter, political pressure etc yet SDF had won its battle. The participation of the farmers in the entire work was more enlightening for us than anything else. The farmers realized that the work was very crucial and hence they volunteered to support us. With this massive exercise, the result was immensely satisfactory and over 500-acre land which was inundated in the water for past 30-40 years became fresh for new crop. So happy were the farmers with this, that they organized meeting in support of further work. A farmer’s movement started building up under the leadership of dynamic Mr Suresh Yadav, who has been working with Bhartiya Kisan Union (Indian Farmers Union) for long. Yadav said that he would support the cause of fishermen to any length and has been of great help for our work in that area. From the very beginning Suresh Yadav involved farmers in our programmes with his great oratorical skills as well as respect that he wield among them. Fishermen who were not amenable to the farmers because they felt that with vacant land they would loose some of their water rights but the fact of the matter was that the lake was and still is unmanageable because of its vast size. Secondly, not even the fishermen have the right to claim the lands of the farmers hence it was good that both the fishermen and farmers work in close cooperation. We succeeded in it because it is felt that fishermen and farmers are complimentary to each other and should not be allowed to be victim of politics, which many organizations and people were playing. Many fishermen who had their land in the lake got their land after the first phase and thanked the SDF for this work.

The second challenging work before us was participation of women. As I have mentioned on numerous occasions that the role of fisherwomen in society is very low. They remain bound to household work. The region had strong feudal roots which later crept in the lower castes also otherwise the poor marginalized communities were more women friendly than the upper elite of Indian society. We started with a school here and supported a local fisher woman who was educated.

The children started coming in and the small school that we managed was open in the verandahs of a local villager. From there we followed up with our intensive leadership training programmes. First the fishermen developed their own organization named as Taal Ratoy Machhua Jan Kalyan Sansthan (Taal Ratoy Fishermen Peoples Welfare Society) and we helped them find a space and managed their working committee. This gave them a sense of identity. Under the leadership of young fishermen Rajendra Sahney and Chhabi Lal, they were send to various parts of the country particularly attending our workshops in Delhi and Lucknow. Some of the friends were also send to Mumbai to participate in the World Social Forum which resulted in greater interest among them. They were told in no uncertain terms that women must be brought forward if they need their development and their future generations. Slowly they realized the importance of women’s participation and started awareness programme. SDF clearly indicated to them that they have to start a programme of themselves and ensure women participate in large number. Our first workshop in Delhi attracted just one woman and she herself was not from the fishermen community but in the second workshop we invited about 30 women activists from their community and got 60 women coming to Delhi after all their problems. They were enthused and left their siblings in the village to participate in the workshop. Some people might say that any body can come and participate but it is not true. For Indian women and particularly for village women, it is very difficult to leave her home. She caters her family and is virtually hub of the family. Interesting part of this workshop in Delhi was that we had clearly informed the fisherfolks that women had to take lead here and speak.

And one should not be surprised that not only the women spoke but they made songs at the venue only, watched the photo exhibition and spoke about their problems. What was impressive was not their speeches but their extempore songs about the work and a hope for the uplift of their community. This workshop filled them with great joy and aspirations for the future. And when the went back the enthusiasm worked as women formed several Self Help Groups for their savings and now there is a Dalit Women Liberation Forum (Maryadpur). This forum has become active raising the issue of women’s empowerment and raise the issue of atrocities on women in that area. According to Sangita Maurya, who is working with this forum, they have formed 15 Self Help Groups so far and planning a center for women who can learn tailoring so that they could work independently.
Social Development Foundation has been helping the organization through various work and donated 4 sewing machines to these women so that their organization can work independently and without being dependent on support from outside. A sense of new identity is working among the women in Maryadpur. Two years back they were just confined to their homes and never thought of anything independently and today, they are not only raising the issue of atrocity and violence on women but also learning to earn for themselves. Sangita Marya has full faith in the work of her organisation when she says,‘ we want to be independent so that we can run our families in a better way. We wish to take our decisions in the welfare of our society as we consider ourself a family.’ Seema Sahney spoke that they are ready to work for the social cause from all their might. We need encouragement. We have power and potential to succeed in our venture.

It is interesting that as women’s voice grew, the core committee of the fishermen also realized the heat of the empowerment and among the 13 members of Taal Ratoy Machchua Jan Kalyan Sansthan, which is managing the affairs of work at the Taal, has four active women members in their board. Though this is not enough yet we must think that changes don’t come that easily and for 33% reservation in Parliament our political leaders were not ready to leave their seats. At least Maryadpur fishermen fulfilled the 33% reservation criteria for women in their executive. One hope that women power will help Taal Ratoy develop a better lake and most importantly the Maryadpur and adjoining 22 villages where the fisherfolks have been working, a better society, free of exploitation and starvation. We cannot feed everyone by charity but with giving people more freedom to think and work. People of Maryadpur village have realized and learnt about this freedom and now they are enjoying it thoroughly. It is a tribute to their work that they now send us regular reports of the cases of human rights violation. Women protest against the injustices and men invite women in all their meetings and could speak to the erring government officials. Thanks to Community Empowerment Facility (CEF), the fishermen, farmers and fisher women in Madhuban town are feeling empowered now.

The caste ridden Indian society fear that any outside onslaught would alter the existing caste equations in the area and hence most of the time anti globalization rhetoric’s spread by those who are local perpetrators of violence on Dalits. Most of the NGOs or so-called civil society groups fail to address the issue of caste violence against Dalits while making loud claims on globalisation. It is the same logic that the fellows of the Sangh Parivar launch when they target the Christian missionaries in Jhabua and elsewhere. They are here to convert the people say some of them. None of them could dare to say that we must work our own way rather than disturb the work of those who are working for the poor. Let the Sangh Parivar ask the Hindu women to work in the nursing sector. Let them create a compassionate woman like Mother Teresa (this writer does not necessarily agree with Mother’s philosophy but he appreciate her work for the poor) in the name of God. Let them come forward and work for the destitute rather than making big temples everywhere. Such atrocious Swadeshi pattern need to be exposed at all fronts. You enjoy your Swadeshi in London and Newyork while when the chances for the poor come to narrate their plight, suddenly jump on this ‘ foreign theory’. An enlightened society reject such notorious ideological perspectives and thankfully fishermen and women in Madhuban are now concerned about their rights and community. They are ready for a new struggle for their dignity and human rights and thankfully they are ready to take on the forces of parochialism in their area.

(The writer is Director, Social Development Foundation, New Delhi)