Kozhikode: On July 10, when the country observed Fish Farmers' Day, the government of Kerala, in the presence of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan honoured three best aquaculture promoters -- the workhorses of the Department of Fisheries -- in Thiruvananthapuram. The plaques and the certificates they got were small consolation for the 500-odd aquaculture promoters running the department's flagship schemes, including the Janakeeya Matsya Krishi (JMK) [People's Fish Farming] in the state.

For, the LDF government had not paid the contract workers' salaries for the past three months. Aquaculture promoters across the state told Onmanorama that the government had been erratic in disbursing their salaries for the past year. "We took out a protest march to the Secretariat last August to clear our dues and reduce our workload. But we heard nothing from the government," said an aquaculture promoter in Kozhikode district.

"I have been working as a promoter for the past nine years. This is the first time we are made to work without salaries," she said. But in his four-minute speech at the Fish Farmers' Day event, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan did not mention the aquaculture promoters or reassure them on paying their salaries. He, however, said the state was not making the desired progress in fish production. He said the awards should inspire those working in the sector, perhaps to slog more.

The Department of Fisheries employs aquaculture promoters, project coordinators and enumerators on contract basis, a workforce as large as the regular employees, if not larger. Aquaculture promoters are the contact points for fish farmers at the local body-level. Their roles include identifying prospective fish farmers, providing them guidance, submitting their bills to the office and ensuring they get their subsidies on time helping implement the Union government's Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana and the state government's JMK, and imparting training to fish farmers on breeding and fish culture practices and ensure smooth supply of fries/ seeds to farmers.

But now, the Department of Fisheries has entrusted them to also conduct a socio-economic survey of fisher families in Kerala. "For the past two months, I have been travelling to a village, 55 km away, to collect data from 800 fisher families," said a promoter in Kasaragod. Every day, she shells out Rs 350 to Rs 400 for daily expenses and transport to conduct the survey, which she will take another two months to complete. "But my salary is only Rs 16,300 which the government does not pay on time," she said.

The department is supposed to appoint one aquaculture promoter in every local body, and a technically qualified project coordinator in a cluster of three to five local bodies to liaise with the promoters and to provide better technical support to farmers. The department also appoints two enumerators, one inland enumerator and the other marine enumerator, in every district to collect data on the fish and fishing boats reaching landing centres every day.

"Our salary is around Rs 25,000 which includes our transport cost. Every day I have to shell out money to go to at least one harbour to collect the data on the quantity of fish arriving and the species of fish caught. This is a field job and I spend a lot to keep it," said a marine enumerator in Kannur district, with a coastline of 82 km. The last time he got his salary was in March.

With irregular disbursal of salaries, several of the contract workers have quit. In January, all six project coordinators in Kasaragod district quit. "Their salaries were held up for three months then," said an official implementing a fisheries scheme in the district.

On July 8, the department conducted interviews to appoint a fresh set of project coordinators in Kasaragod. But Joint Director of Fisheries (Aqua) H Salim put on hold the appointments because of insufficient funds. Multiple calls to Salim's phone went unanswered.

At one point, the Department had engaged 570 aquaculture promoters on a contractual basis. When promoters quit, the workload of those who stay back increases. Kasaragod district now has only 22 aquaculture promoters against the sanctioned strength of 32.

"Earlier, I was responsible for only one panchayat. Now I have to look after three panchayats," said a promoter. Kannur has 36 promoters against 40 posts, and four project coordinators against seven posts. Kozhikode has 35 against 39 posts. Districts such as Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Ernakulam have only 36 to 43 promoters.

A fisheries official in central Kerala stated that the government was unable to pay the salaries of contractual workers on time because of inadequate budgeting. "We often seek additional funds by writing new projects," he said.
At the Fish Farmers' Day function in Thiruvananthapuram on July 10, Minister for Fisheries Saji Cherian spoke for 10 minutes without addressing the issue of unpaid salaries for contractual workers.

He, however, said Kerala's fish production has increased to 40,850 tonnes now from 24,000 tonnes in 2016-2017 when the Pinarayi Vijayan-led government first took charge. He also said that the productivity of fish farming has increased significantly, now yielding 1 tonne from two cents of land, compared to the earlier yield of 1 tonne from 1 hectare of land. The Fisheries Department has set a target to increase production to 70,000 tonnes by 2026. Despite the higher target, the government has lowered its budget for inland fish farming by 5% to Rs 97.41 crore in 2024-2025 from Rs 102.61 crore in 2023-2024.

A top fisheries official in Thiruvananthapuram district said the reduced budget would not affect the disbursal of salaries of the contractual workers. "We will give them their salaries, even if they have worked for one day," she told Onmanorama.

When told about the top official's response, an implementing official in Kannur said he found such unsympathetic comments distasteful. "Remember the uproar in the state when the government delayed the salaries of regular employees by four days in March? These contract workers are in the fourth month without their meagre salaries. How can we even ask them to do some work? They do not protest because they are on contract," he said.