KARACHI, Dec 19: The coastal towns and villages in Sindh, including those around Karachi, still lack basic civic amenities and a large number of fishermen in these areas live in an abject poverty-stricken condition, a survey shows.
Besides, rampant unemployment has made the life of these fishermen miserable. For years, these communities have been depending on fisheries’ resources to eke out a living.
It has been observed that for years no planned activity has been carried out to provide these people with an alternative mean of income and they have no other activity except fishing.
Most of the fishermen, who live in small villages consisting of mainly small wooden huts and semi-pucca houses, are deprived of basic amenities, such as water, electricity, health and education facilities.
These fishermen, locally known as Mohana or Maheegir, are the majority community living in the coastal areas of Karachi as well as inside the coastal creeks of the Indus delta.
A survey of these fishermen’s villages shows a dismal picture of abject poverty where barefooted children are seen playing with mud, while the old and the youth are seen sitting in wooden hotels, chewing betal-nuts.
People in most of these villages are not aware of modern concept of health, education and other facilities. Perhaps, it is because of this factor that the government agencies have not taken any step for their upliftment.
Although official figures put the number of active fishermen in the coastal areas of Sindh at 70,000, unofficial records indicate much higher number.
The exact number of fishermen’s villages could not be officially ascertained, but a survey shows that there are hundreds of villages in the coastal areas of Karachi as well as Thatta.
The official sources claim that the coastal resources of Sindh still remain untapped and need more mechanization and greater fleets for being properly exploited.
But the indigenous fishermen have always claimed a major decrease in the fish species, saying that a number of species, which were found in abundance in the past, have now completely become extinct.
According to them, the major cause of decrease in the fish- catch, which has led to a large-scale unemployment among the fishermen, has been over-fishing and operation of deep-trawlers in the coastal waters of Sindh.
They also say that population pressure on the coastal livelihoods due to the entry of people in the fisheries’ sector from other businesses has also caused unemployment among the fishermen.
At present, there are about one million illegal immigrants living in Karachi alone, most of whom have taken refuge in the coastal areas and taken up fishing as their profession.
NGOs working for the welfare of these fishermen have been demanding provision of basic amenities and provision of alternative income-generating means for the fishermen, so as to bring changes to their living standards.
For this, they suggest that efforts should be made to improve road network in the villages, water and electricity facilities should be provided to each settlement, besides providing basic health and education facilities.
At the same time, they say, steps should also be taken for creation of income-generating activities and that fisheries- related jobs should also be generated in the areas.
For women, they suggest that steps be taken to promote skill- development projects, enabling them to take up home-based employment or jobs in the service sector economy.
For more educated and talented youths, opportunities in other professions and service sector should be encouraged.
They say that priority in these initiatives should be given to those children whose parents are currently involved in fishing and its related activities. The main long-term objective of such skill-oriented employment programmes should be to get as many people as possible out of the fish harvesting activity in the coming decades.
Pakistan’s 1050-kilometre-long coastline is divided into two major areas: The Sindh coast, about 350km in length, extends from Karachi to the Indian border, while Balochistan coast stretches from the west of Karachi to the Iranian border and possesses a much narrower continental shelf (15 to 50km) with a number of bays along its length.
