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G O B A R
G Y A N |
I AM
CONFUSED |
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 Hello all,
I want you to meet two of my friends.
Here is Leelamma. A fish vendor, she lives in a tiny village in coastal Kerala. Till a
year ago her husband, Andrew, used to go out into the sea in his own kattamaram - wooden
country craft. And Leelamma prayed that he caught a lot of big sharks which would fetch
them enough money to send her four children to school. Then, one night, Andrew cast his
net and fell asleep in his boat. A large mechanised trawler hit him. He survived, but his
kattamaram did not. Till today Leelamma and her family have not been able to save enough
to build another one for Andrew. So he and his sons now work as coolies.
Now meet Durlav Malo.Fisherman and head of a large family living in Gazipur, in South
Bengal. Ma Ganga is his only source of livelihood. In the past, the river was
generous-providing the much-in-demand ilish mach (hilsa fish) aplenty. But not any more.
Factories on either side of Ganga, pour out their waste into it-killing the 'quiet-living
ilish shoals'. Durlav's net remains empty and his debt to wholesale fish dealers keeps
mounting.
Fisherfolks, like my friends, contribute enormously to our national income. So why are
they starving? Lets find out.
– Pandit Gobar Ganesh
E-mail: panditji@cseindia.org
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