House panel criticises Union government’s flagship welfare support for fisherfolk

A parliamentary committee has criticized the Union government's flagship welfare program for traditional fisherfolk, revealing that only about 2.1% or 595,000 of India's estimated 28 million fishers received financial assistance during the annual fishing ban from 2020 to 2025. The fishing ban, which lasts 61 days annually, is enforced along India's coastal waters to protect fish during their peak breeding and spawning seasons. The duration may vary for the east and west coasts.

However, the committee found the scheme's performance in providing livelihood and nutritional support under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) to be "dismally low." Despite being designed to cushion income loss during the ban, the scheme only offers ₹4,500 annually per beneficiary, which is divided between the Union government's contribution of ₹3,000 and the beneficiary's contribution of ₹1,500.

The committee expressed "very disheartening" disappointment at the low coverage of beneficiaries, despite the scheme being operational for five years.

Rebuking the argument that low coverage was primarily due to a lack of registration, the panel attributed the issue to the current economic parameters and inflation. They recommended increasing financial assistance to at least ₹10,000 per fisher per year without any annual contribution from fishermen. The fisheries department has prepared a proposal for this enhancement, which is expected to be implemented from the financial year 2025-26, pending approval from the Union Cabinet.

The panel also highlighted the slow pace of investment in fisheries infrastructure. While India has 1,547 notified fish landing centers, only 379 have been selected for development as fishing harbors or fish landing centers since 1964, with just 287 having been completed by June 2025. This significant gap in infrastructure capacity has prompted the committee to urge the fisheries department to select more landing centers for modernization, relax some selection criteria, and expedite project implementation.