Betwa Sharma

DANDI, Gujarat – Until three out of her five sons were imprisoned in Pakistan for breaching the maritime border while fishing, Babiben Mandan Majethiya and her daughters-in-law had no idea that Pakistan even existed.

These women, who never went to school, still don’t know about the partition or the wars fought between India and Pakistan. “I only know my sons would never do anything wrong,” Mrs. Majethiya had cried when they were locked up.

After one year in prison, the three men came home on the evening of July 1. When reached by phone on Sunday night, Mrs. Majethiya had just finished cooking them a warm meal and tucking them into bed. “After so long, I will sleep peacefully and my heart will begin to mend,” she said. “But I will never let them go back to sea.”

Mrs. Majethiya lives in Dandi, a small coastal village of Gujarat state in its Junagadh district, where several families are missing men who have been arrested by Pakistan for crossing the maritime border while fishing in the Arabian Sea. Many of them sail from Porbandar, the main port town and the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi, which is about a five-hour drive from the rural hamlet of about 60 families.

A large number of arrests happen around Sir Creek, a disputed 100-kilometer (60-mile) marshland that divides Gujarat and Pakistan’s Sindh province, which has no clearly demarcated border. The fishermen are caught because they pursue the best catch, which is found closer to Pakistan where the Indus River meets the Arabian Sea, as crews of commercial trawlers face intense pressure from boat owners who hire and fire frequently. Also, a large number of boats don’t have a GPS system, and even if the equipment exists, few fishermen have been trained to use it. In most instances, waves and wind are blamed for pushing the boat toward Pakistan in the night.

Betwa Sharma

The fishing community in Dandi feel like pawns as they live with the consequences of the hostility between the two countries. While poor fishermen are arrested, boat owners lose their trawlers, worth at least 2.5 million rupees ($44,000). “We risk losing loved ones and our livelihood every day,” said Madhubhai Soneri, an elderly activist from Porbandar who is fighting to stop the arrests.

Meanwhile, over 200 Pakistani fishermen are imprisoned in India for the same reason as their Indian counterparts. “No one has turned out to be a terrorist or spy, so why this treatment by both governments?” said Muhammad Ali Shah, head of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, a nongovernmental organization based in Karachi.

On June 27, Pakistan released more than 300 fishermen from Malir jail outside Karachi. Nasir Aslam Zahid, a retired judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, arranged for the prisoners to travel in six air-conditioned buses to Punjab’s Wagah border.

Mr. Zahid, also a member of the India-Pakistan Judicial Committee on Prisoners, said he hoped that the remaining 131 prisoners can be released in the next few months. “But by that time, we would have arrested more and so would India,” he said.

The six-member Judicial Committee, an advisory board consisting of retired judges from Pakistan and India, recommends that both countries stop the arrests and detention of fishermen. “This is a body set up by both governments, but nobody listens to us,” said Mr. Zahid. “It’s so frustrating to watch fishermen and their families suffer for no reason at all.”

While the cycle of arrests continues, families that are left behind face severe economic adversity. In places like Dandi, there is little to do except fishing, but Gujarati women don’t go to sea. Agricultural labor, which fetches about 100 rupees ($1.75) per day, is hard to find daily.

Jagdish, a fisherman from Porbandar who goes by one name, used to earn 5,000 rupees every month. After he was arrested, his wife, Kanta, started cleaning utensils for 2,000 rupees monthly, but it wasn’t regular work. The family cut its rations and pulled two girls out of school. Although Mr. Jagdish has returned, the hardships continue. “He is so afraid of going back to sea that I don’t blame him,” said Mrs. Kanta. “The girls’ marriages will have to wait.”

In 2007, the Congress Party said it would give 300,000 rupees in compensation for the next of kin of captured fishermen, and a handful of people received the money. The program, however, is now viewed by many as a Congress ploy to gain votes in state elections at the time.

“Nothing was released for fishermen who were arrested after that,” said Jignesh Visavadia, a local official with Marine Products Exports Development Authority, which coordinates activity between the state and central government. “Maybe some package will be announced during the next elections,” he added.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government now provides only 50 rupees per day to families of arrested fishermen. “It is barely enough to survive, but politicians are not interested,” said Mr. Visavadia.

But it isn’t just the financial hardships that women talk about. “Do I have to say how much I missed him?” said Mrs. Kanta, looking shyly at her husband, who steadfastly gazed into the distance. When the neighbors mischievously cheered at her sentiment, the middle-aged couple couldn’t resist grinning at each other.

Wives and mothers in Pakistan grapple with the loneliness and loss of livelihood as well, said Mr. Shah of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum. “The condition of families is worse here because there is no monetary help from the government,” he said.

Jamaluddin, additional secretary of the Home Department in Sindh, Pakistan, who goes by one name, confirmed that the Pakistani government had no policy to compensate the families of fishermen imprisoned in India. Some compensation, however, is doled out on an ad hoc basis.

“If a minister is feeling generous or some additional funds come in – otherwise, nothing,” said Intikhab Hussain, deputy director of the Karachi Fisheries Harbour Authority.

Muhammad Shakeel, 30, of Karachi has four children of his own. But he is also supporting the four children and the wife of his elder brother, a fisherman jailed in an Indian prison since 2009. Mr. Shakeel recalled that the government provided 7,000 Pakistani rupees ($74) for three months after the arrest, but then the money stopped. “How can I support so many children?” he said in a phone interview.

The younger brother, who used to be a fisherman, now has a government job that pays about 13,000 Pakistani rupees a month. He tries to make an additional 300 rupees by doing odd jobs after office hours.

“We don’t want money; we just want him back,” he said. The family has not received a single letter from the imprisoned man since he was arrested.

Meanwhile, the family of Rambhai Vala, a fisherman from Junagadh, is waiting for his body to be returned to India. The 55-year-old fisherman, who died of an illness while in prison, has been lying in a mortuary in Karachi for over a month. “Officials say it is some procedural issue, but it is unacceptable for this to take more than 48 hours,” said Jatin Desai from Pakistan India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy, a civil society organization. “We have to be sensitive to people who die.”

The activist recalled that Ibrahim Mallah, a fisherman from Keti Bandar in Sindh, was buried in India two weeks after he died in September 2010. Mr. Mallah’s family in Pakistan never saw him again.

The suffering of fishing families, on both sides of the border, has united Indian and Pakistani activists. “Honestly, our friends in Pakistan have done more for Indian fishermen,” said Mr. Desai. “India must reciprocate.”

Activists, for years, have been pushing for speedy repatriation of captured fishermen. Despite their efforts, consular access to foreign prisoners and verification of their identity still takes more than a year. In January, the Indian Supreme Court, describing the delay as a violation of the right to liberty, ordered the government to send the prisoners home within a month of the completion of their sentence.

Legal experts also contend that detaining fishermen indefinitely defies due process. “Usually, there is no way of determining if the border was intentionally breached,” said Rajesh Sheth, a lawyer who represents Pakistani fishermen in Indian courts. “Some people have not returned for over 10 years, and it’s likely that they just crossed by mistake.”

In Pakistan, hundreds of prisoners plead guilty as a matter of routine. “Of course, there is no rule of law,” said Mr. Zahid, the retired judge. “If they don’t plead guilty, their hearings will last a decade or more.”

Activists want foreign ministers of both countries, who are expected to meet in July, to finally end the hostile policy and commit to protecting the fishing community. Mr. Zahid describes it as a “story of small people” whose troubles can either be swept under the carpet or easily fixed. “I have seen officers talk about fishermen like numbers, not people who are fathers, husbands and sons,” he said.

For now, the mothers and wives of Dandi keep their eyes on the horizon. Jaya Siyal had to wait for three years before her husband returned. “He has already missed his children growing up,” she said. “Who will give us back that lost time?”