Marine training:Sailing from a glorious past to grim present

Among the many discussions at the recently held

World Shipping Forum meet

in Chennai, a pertinent issue was the status of

marine training

in India today.

Not many remember that we would never have had a training ship, but for Sir P S

Sivaswami Iyer

(1864-1946), a statesman who was the advocate general of Madras from 1907 to 1911. In the first session of the reformed central legislative assembly on January 12, 1922, Iyer moved a resolution to constitute a committee to investigate possibilities of promoting the formation of an Indian mercantile marine. The resolution was adopted in which there was a point "for the establishment of a nautical college in Indian waters for the purpose of training the executive officers and engineers of ships".

A committee headed by Captain

E J Headlam

, appointed on February 3, 1923 stressed the need for a "training school for deck and engine room staff and the conversion of the Royal Indian Marine Troopship Dufferin for that purpose". As no action was taken, Aiyar, on March 19, 1926 moved another resolution that emphasised on the creation of an Indian mercantile marine, training Indians, introducing marine engineering in selected institutions and introducing licensing for coastal trade. After much persuasion, training ship Dufferin was commissioned in December 1927. But, although Indians were trained along with British, they were not hired by shipping companies. By 1936, only 25 Indian cadets were employed by British companies in India. A ship fully manned by Indians was possible only in 1950 when S S Jalagopal of Scindias sailed into

Singapore

on October 12, under the command of an Indian captain.

These struggles seem futile when one looks at the ailing training system today. Though the Indian Maritime University with seven training centres in India was established in Chennai, the ills of training and placement haunt the Indian mariner. Mushrooming of institutes all over the country seems to have reduced the quality of training. "Foreign companies which earlier preferred Indian officers are now hesitant to hire them as they feel the training is not good enough" says an expert. There are 38 training centres in south India alone, which churns mariners in numbers, making placement tough.

Reputed training centres have their own woes. "Why should the D G of shipping have all the control over training? We need a separate directorate for maritime education and training" says senior member

Dr R Lakshmipathy

, chairman, R L Institute of Nautical Sciences, Madurai.

The Merchant Shipping Bill 2016, introduced in the Lok Sabha recently also seeks to rectify some of the ills, especially to monitor the training system and certification. Some trainers feel that training should be transferred from the bureaucracy to a directorate devoted to the purpose. Paradoxically, there is both a dearth of well-trained officers and a surplus of unemployed mariners. Recently a premier shipping company said that well-trained mariners were running away to serve on foreign ships. If quick action is not taken, the future may be bleak for marine training in the country.