SUNDAY, MAY 05, 2024
Alexandre Moniz Barbosa
In a year where there has been little to cheer – despite it being the 60th year of Goa’s Liberation and was meant to have a variety of celebrations – the claimed success of the first phase of the Swayampurna Goem initiative lends hope that the government did something positive during the past 12 months. The success even led to Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking an hour off on Saturday to interact with a Swayampurna Mitra, a sarpanch, a municipal council chairperson and four beneficiaries of the initiative. The interaction revealed that the Centre had taken note of the programme and what the Goa government had achieved. Interestingly, the Prime Minister said that ‘Goa means nature and tourism, but today it also means a new model of development and a reflection of collective efforts. Goa means solidarity for development from panchayat to administration’. This statement was naturally picked up by the media across the country and for once, Goa was in the news for the right reasons, for what it has managed to get done, rather than the political instability it is otherwise known for. Not that recent political developments in the State have gone unnoticed by the national media, but this was a break from the political news.
In the space of a year, Goa has managed to make some breakthroughs in the long-term quest of becoming self sufficient. It has been a start, a small step actually and there is still a long way to go. In the run-up to the 2012 elections, BJP then in opposition and seeking to make a comeback had aggressively campaigned on the plank of parivartan or change. The party came to power with 21 MLAs but Goa didn’t see that change in that term, at least not change in the positive sense, but this now has the early beginnings of some transformation, if only it can be taken forward and at a much faster pace.
Earlier this month, Union Minister of State for Agriculture, Shobha Karandlaje, said that the Centre will work with the State to make Goa a self-sufficient State in the next three years. The minister said that Goa is self sufficient in milk, but the target is vegetables also. That statement has a sense of deja vu as she was almost echoing the words of Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant who has made similar statements in the past months, especially since the start of the pandemic. Unbelievable though it may sound – Goa is on course becoming self-sufficient in some vegetable production – the Swayampurna Goem initiative has led to this success.
Government statements show that there has been a 40 per cent increase in horticulture production, six per cent in floriculture and 10 per cent in dairy production since this programme unfolded a year ago. Besides, 12 agricultural products, all locally grown, have been marketed under the brand ‘The Goan’. Buoyed by the success, the government is planning six biodiversity clusters across the State for the promotion of food processing industry such as jackfruit jam and juice, kokum and boiled rice. A traditional occupation sector – agriculture and horticulture – that had been badly trailing behind in Goa is showing a revival. It has perhaps been the result of not just the Swayampurna Goem initiative, but also the fact that the economic downturns of the past year and of the current fiscal, sent many people back to their lands.
That, however, is not all the Swayampurna Goem initiative has achieved. It has brought government servants who otherwise sat behind their desks and would more often than not be less than helpful to the common man, get out of the confines of the cubicles and go to the villages to meet the people. A year ago it would be difficult to imagine a Goa government employee dedicating his or her Saturday and Sunday weekend holidays to visiting panchayats and interacting with people to help them become self-reliant. This is actually happening and for once, the government servant on this duty deserves to be complimented.
Swayampurna Goem began with the focus on increasing economic activity and reducing dependency on neighbouring States, but acquired new goals of making households self-sufficient too. As a result a large number of people have also benefitted from government programmes that they might have otherwise not been aware of, but if government staff has been on the move in this initiative, they claim that it has been the lack of support from the local bodies – panchayats and municipalities – that has come as a hurdle, as several Swayampurna Mitras receive little or no cooperation from the local governing bodies. For a change, government servants were willing to go the extra mile, while the local bodies displayed lethargy.
With this success behind it, the State’s initiative has two more phases to go. The second phase, to be launched on the 60th Goa Liberation Day, will focus on self employment, entrepreneurship and startups, by facilitating ease of doing business, mentorship, funding, etc. If the Goa government and its employees can keep up their spirits thorough the next two phases then this can truly be successful. It only requires the same determination and enthusiasm that has been visible till now. So instead of celebrating, the time should be spent on planning the next stage.
It appears from this that all what was required was change in the government perception of how to work to make things happen in Goa. At the end of the interaction the Prime Minister went on to say that ‘When we get the support of the government and the hard work of the people, how change comes, how self-confidence comes, we all experienced this during our discussion with the beneficiaries of Swayampurna Goa.’ Nothing can succeed unless the government and the people work together. This is not something that has been learnt today, but perhaps the Swayampurna Goem initiative has reiterated it. If this is going to bring a change in how the government employee works and is beneficial to the State, then it deserves to be promoted. The second phase will tell whether it is a success or not.
