The question everyone asks, why SAO?

Let us imagine a hypothetical unwanted scenario where in an Odia seafarer working

with a foreign company based in Hong Kong & sailing on a ship flying a Liberian flag, gets high-jacked at Nigeria or Somalia by pirates. His wife and only child stay at a remote Odisha town/village with aged parents. Where do they go seeking help? Whom do they contact at this time of distress? Who will guide them in every step to ascertain his safe return and co-ordinate among ITF maritime unions (MUI/NUSI) and the local shipping company employing him from India?

Who in the Government and ministries will be helping him?

It is rather unfortunate to state that Odisha has been historically considered a very backward state and has always stayed at the sidelines of other developed coastal states even though boasting of a coastline of about 450kms with a potential to make deep water ports and marine facilities better than most west coast states of India.

Who in the Government and ministries will be helping him?

Most office bearers & staff of main maritime bodies such as MUI/NUSI/CMMI/NI/IOE etc., do not even clearly understand the location of state of Odisha let alone, Bhubaneswar. Most people think that we are some district of Kolkata or Bengal. Most port cities have thriving Merchant navy clubs and associations including non-port cities such as New Delhi, Chandigarh and even Patna, so why not ODISHA??

“You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water” – Rabindranath Tagore

It is with this primary focus Seafarers’ association of Odisha (SAO) was envisaged by a group of likeminded and concerned Odia mariners from with-in the state in year 2012 to prepare a platform which will be seen and heard as voice of Odisha’s marine fraternity