Six months after the shocking revelation
came to light that fish imported into Goa is preserved in the carcinogenic formalin,
the issue is nowhere close to a solution. Recently, health minister Vishwajit
Rane announced that the ban on imports will be in place for six months, except
for those traders who comply with health and quality regulations. This apparently
unstoppable poisoning (or adulteration) not only brings the governmental
authorities under the scanner for being unable to stop such malpractices, but
also highlights the manner in which the fishing industry operates in most parts
of coastal India. It is important to discuss the labor practices and potential
policy decisions that would address allied issues, including the issue of
formalin.
It appears that all the coastal regions
of peninsular India are linked in the manner in which the fishing industry
operates. All the states in peninsular India are export-oriented: the best
catch goes to the metropolitan markets of Bombay and Delhi. The labor for most
of the mechanized fishing on the west coast, such as that in Goa and
Maharashtra, comes from the east coast: from Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, as well
as Bihar. The first reports
of tainted fish were discovered in Kerala, linked to fish imported from Andhra
Pradesh. Hence it is not surprising that the issue in one place has snowballed
into a crisis for other regions. Soon after formalin-laced fish was detected in
Kerala, other states, including Goa, Assam, and Meghalaya were on alert. Short
periods of import bans, coupled with damage-control
exercises by the fish traders associations of
Andhra Pradesh, were followed by normalization of business.
But the issue did not die; at least not
in Goa with illegalities coming to light every other week since June 2018. Last
month, fish traders from the neighboring district of Sindhudurg in Maharashtra
were up in arms alleging that local politics in Goa was impeding their exports,
and they were facing harassment at the Goan border despite following all the
rules and regulations of the Goa Government. Karnataka is also threatening
to halt mutual exports and imports from and to Goa if fish from its coastal
regions is not allowed to be imported into Goa. The peninsular states seem to
be dependent on each other for labor and export markets.
The mechanized and labor intensive
nature of the industry, largely through trawl and purse seine fishing, requires
that a large chunk of the fish be exported. The economics of the fishing industry
suggests that local production for local consumption, or self-sufficiency, is
not possible – not in Goa or anywhere else in peninsular India. The quantity of
industrially-produced fish is either too much for local consumption, or certain
types of fish are not part of local diets. Hence, despite banning imports from
other states, Goa’s fishing industry depends on exports. This is the reason why
Karnataka and Maharashtra get affected with a fish import ban in Goa. This is also
why calls for banning export of Goan fish or threats to stop exports completely
cause considerable worry to Goan fish traders.
Apart from the macroeconomic setup, most
of the fishing industry is sustained by, as mentioned earlier, poor
migrant labor who are mostly men away from their
families and who work in extremely difficult and unhygienic conditions. They do
not have benefits like health insurance and are informally contracted to work,
without much options in case of conflicts with their employers. After the catch
is brought ashore, it is transported to various destinations near and far. The
drivers and the laborers are the ones who have to deal with the police
checkpoints and the ire of the locals if any illegalities, such as in the
formalin case, are detected.
Next are the distribution networks through
the wholesale and local markets, including door-to-door delivery. In Goa, these
wholesale and local markets, in addition to providing employment to local men
and women, also once again employ a lot of poor migrant labor. Unregulated
markets, along with cheaper imported fish means that local fish vendors inside
the markets have to compete with those, generally migrant, vendors outside
creating its own set of problems due to an export-oriented industry. We see hundreds
of women in local markets and along the roads who sell fish throughout the day
whether it rains or the scorching sun beat down on them. In every town and
village there is an absence of proper market infrastructure. Add to this is the
uncertainty of earning one’s daily wages when the government is unable to
regulate illegalities in the industry, and when the big bosses of the industry
are not committed to providing proper working conditions to those that service
the fishing industry. This is similar to what happens in other profit-driven,
high volume industries like real estate: the labor of the poor is appropriated
while the laborer is dispensed with. Who will fix all of this and not just the
poisoned fish that we are forced to consume?
What is happening with the formalin
issue is not just a tragedy for those who are economically dependent on the
fish industry, along with those who consume fish daily, but also an
environmental disaster in the making. Much of the trawl and purse seine fishing,
in addition to the destruction of marine ecology by the mining
and tourism
industry, is depleting the stocks of fish at
alarming rates. This is the right time to integrate worker rights and
environmental concerns with debates over our health so that future governmental
policies and regulations will be drafted with an eye not only on people’s
health and worker rights, but also to safeguard the environment.
(First published in O Heraldo, dt: 5 December, 2018)
