Originally, we are from Bijnour, U.P. My grandfather came with a group of fishermen who got a contract to fish at Harike more than fifty years ago. After the contract was over, he decided to stay back while the others left. In the beginning, he did labor here and there, once he was settled he called his brother to Harike and started our ancestral business of net making. There weren’t many net makers here earlier. We were the first ones to do it properly.

We’ve still got our fields, family and relatives back in U.P but there’s no such place like Punjab. I visit Bijnour for 2-3 days every month. Once I get there, something inside me starts to grow impatient and I feel like rushing back to Punjab. We feel a lot safer here than UP. Nobody sees us as an outsider, even though we are.

We make nets from Nylon, Mono and Plastic. Earlier we sold handmade nets more often, from nearly 30 years the machine dominates. It takes almost a week to make a net with hands. We don’t make many because they just sell for 800 and that’s not a lot for so much of a hardship. Sales range from 0 – 10,000 a day. Sometimes we don’t sell anything for a week and the other days, the sales are quite good. Nets aren’t just sold for fishing. Like now’s the time when several vine vegetables grow, so farmers buy nets to separate and lead the vines.

I can’t but my children can read and write Punjabi, and are now studying in Delhi. But they don’t want to continue this work, it’s hard and they think it’s not respected so much. So, they are trying for a corporate job.

Story by: Gurdeep Dhaliwal