In which year the National Fish Workers Forum called for a nationwide strike to oppose the move of the government to issue licenses to foreign trawlers?

July 2002

*The correct answer is Option 4: July 2002*

In July 2002 the National Fish Workers Forum called for a nationwide strike to oppose the move of the government to issue licenses to foreign trawlers.

With the coming of policies of economic liberalisation in and around the mid ’eighties, these organisations were compelled to come together on a national level platformthe NFF or National Fishworkers’ Forum. Fish workers from Kerala took the main responsibility of mobilising fellow workers, including women workers from other States. Work of the NFF consolidated when in 1991 it fought its first legal battle with the Union government successfully. This was about the government’s deep sea fishing policy that opened up India’s waters to large commercial vessels including those of the multinational fishing companies. Throughout the nineties the NFF fought various legal and public battles with the government. It worked to protect the interests of those who rely on fishing for subsistence rather than those who invest in the sector for profit. In July 2002, NFF called for a nationwide strike to oppose the move of the government to issue licenses to foreign trawlers. The NFF joined hands with organisations all over the world for protecting ecology and for protecting lives of the fish workers.