Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala’s drive against loan sharks, Operation Kubera, will have to tackle predatory moneylending in the traditional fishing sector.
Investigators say the fisher folk habitually rely on moneylenders during the lean season. The fishing community in the State has relatively less access to banking services.
The void is filled by moneylenders who extend fisher folk loans at usurious rates to replace or repair their fishing gear and also for other emergencies.
In return, they appropriate a significant portion of the hard-earned daily catch during the harvest season. Fishermen are often denied the right to set the first price for their catch. Criminal elements at fish-landing centres help moneylenders recover their debts. The questionable practice has had considerable social consequences, in the densely populated coastal areas of the district.
The loan sharks, who profit from the racket, rarely consider the principal amount paid and ensnare their clients in an almost permanent debt trap.
Black market moneylenders also profit from exploiting the economic backwardness of women fish hawkers.
Thiruvananthapuram, followed by Kasaragod, has the largest number of fish hawkers, an estimated 10,000. They are a largely unorganised workforce. Most of them set out well before daybreak from their homes to purchase fish from wholesale markets and fish-landing centres, including those as far as Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu, and spend the better part of the day hawking the perishable goods in urban neighbourhoods.
A police investigator says moneylenders often charge fish hawkers an interest of up to Rs.1,000 a day on a loan of Rs.1 lakh. (Fisher women often seek loans as a group). This means an annual interest rate of 360 per cent, compared to the nominal 12 to 14 per cent charged by nationalised banks.
The moneylenders seek ration cards, promissory notes, kerosene permits, stamp papers, and land deeds as surety from their clients. In addition, they also force them to sign land-sale agreements to show on record that the loan was actually an advance for the borrower’s property.
The traditional strengths of the fisher folk community, including a spirit of sharing bolstered by the beliefs spread by the Latin Catholic church, has prevented many debt-ridden families from committing suicide, an investigator says. The Kubera helpline number is 94477 77100.
Investigators say moneylenders charge fish hawkers an interest of up to Rs.1,000 a day on a loan of Rs.1 lakh
