Jailed fishers, struggling families: A Palghar story
Sami Kishore Masya's tin-roofed tenement is so dark in the sunny afternoon that a volunteer has to turn on a mobile torch to converse with her. Sami speaks haltingly in Marathi. "My husband was our main breadwinner.
Survival is hard as there are many to feed (five children, her mother, and herself) and income is unsteady and paltry," she says. The family lives in Khunwde village in Dahanu Taluka, Palghar district.
Sami is the wife of Kishore Ukhadya Masya, one of 18 fishermen currently imprisoned in Malir Jail in Karachi, Pakistan. The men were arrested when their boats were swept into international waters by gusty winds. Acting on repeated petitions by peace activists, in 2023 the Maharashtra govt announced a daily allowance of Rs 300 to each of their families.
Incidentally, all 18 fishers from Maharashtra are from tribal villages in Palghar district.
Activists seeking financial aid on their behalf blame bureaucratic indifference for their families' hardships.
"The state govt has sanctioned Rs 16.20 lakh to the families of fishermen, as opposed to the Rs 64.16 lakh proposed by the fisheries department of Palghar, as of May 2025," says Mumbai-based peace activist Jatin Desai, who has worked for the repatriation of Indian and Pakistani fishermen imprisoned in each country.
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"The remaining amount (Rs 47.97 lakh) should be released immediately, followed by Rs 9,000 credited monthly to their bank account.
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There are 193 Indian fishermen, including 18 from Maharashtra, in Pakistan's custody, while 81 Pakistani fishers are in Indian jails. Each year, on January 1 and July 1, both countries swap lists of the fishermen and civil prisoners they hold from across the border.
Desai says both countries have violated the bilateral agreement.
"Section (V) of the bilateral agreement on consular access, 2008, says that both govts have to agree to release and repatriate persons within one month of confirmation of their national status and completion of their sentences," he explains. "Of the 193 Indian fishermen in Pakistan's jails, 180 completed their sentence and their nationality was verified.
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Ajay Vasant Varu of Jalwai village in Dahanu Taluka was arrested on November 5, 2021, along with seven others, by Pakistan Maritime Security Agency when their boat drifted across the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL).
"I have three children and Ajay's old father to look after. The little income (Rs 250 per day) from plucking chikoos is inadequate to run the house. This too stops as chikoo plucking is seasonal and I then have to look for farm work," says Ajay's wife Bhagyashree.
The desperation of the families is acute. While men either work on fishing boats of Porbandar and Diu, or at factories and back offices located in the neighbouring districts of Gujarat, women toil at chikoo orchards and on paddy fields.
Local volunteer Ganpat Lakshman Bujad says the tribals possess little beyond their modest houses in their hamlets on the hills. Bujad's cousin Vinod Lakshman Kol's body was brought back from Pakistan to his village on May 1 last year, after he died of a heart attack on March 17. "People take risks and go fishing deep into the sea because hunger haunts their families back home," he says.
Working between August and April, with a three-month monsoon break from May to July, fishers are under pressure to net a large catch so that boat owners, who spend Rs 4-5 lakh on a 20-day trip, can profit from each trip. In addition to the diesel cost, fishermen are paid Rs 20,000-25,000 each. "Pollution from effluents and industrial waste flowing into the sea have driven fish further away from the coast. This has forced fishermen to sail deeper into waters and risk drifting into Pakistani territory," says Bharat Mody, ex-president, Porbandar Fishermen Boat Owners Association.
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