THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2024
Sebastian Noronha
Am I prepared to do it? "I", as in me, personally? Or am I saying that "other" Goans should do it?
In the last few days we've heard that there are around 70000 labourers who have registered to return to their native villages. Now this is an annual occurrence, and is nothing really unusual. But the issue will arise somewhere in the end of August, when hardly any labourers will be willing to come back, or whether they shall be permitted to come back or no, depending on the lockdown situation then.
Whenever the question like this is asked: "With the laborers gone, who will build our houses?" (for instance), there are many virtual voices that make philosophical statements like: "Goans will do it. Goans have been doing it before the migrants came", etc.
So my next question to these philosophers is: "Who are these Goans who will do it? Are you one of them? Because I am not!"
Well, there is quite a simple reason for why we are so dependent on outside labourers. It is the advancement in the level of education and exposure, that has caused the shift of the Goan workforce, from blue-collar to white-collar level, leaving an empty space where blue-collar labor is required.
Our parents and grandparents worked hard in their traditional occupations, and they had only one objective in their life: That their children should not have to go through the same hardships in the future. They strived to toil day and night in order to get their children the best of education possible.
This is where the shift began. Slowly, yet steadily, the subsequent generations started getting educated in different areas; mostly in streams not even remotely related to their ancestors occupations. And the outward exodus began.
The vacuum created by this exodus had to be somehow filled. And the law of demand and supply took over.
Contractors and other industrialists brought in people from outside the State, to meet their blue-collar labour requirements. And coincidently they found not only an abundant supply of manpower, but also a cost benefit. And it stuck!
Over the last 4 decades or so, one can say with certainty, that Goa simply does not have a big enough (local) blue-collar workforce to meet its requirements. We don't! Don't go by the CM's list of 11000. That does not even scrape the surface.
Talks are easy. It's quite easy to say, "Our ancestors did it, so why can't we?". It's nice and easy to put nostalgic pictures of how, 40 years back, our ancestors were working in the fields, or selling pottery in the fair. The real test comes when one has to do these things himself or herself.
We need to understand why we are where we are in the first place. We ourselves, individually, should be prepared to pick up a spade, or an axe, or a plough, and go to the field to plant our own rice, or climb the tree to pluck our own coconuts!
Otherwise it's better to stop advising (and expecting) "other" Goans to do it.
Its very glamorous for me to one day pick up the spade and take a few "candid-looking" pictures in the paddy field, just to upload on social media. All this, while wearing Umbro shorts, Puma flip-flops, Adidas Dri-Fit anti-perspiration t-shirt, and a Reebok cap!
That doesn't make me a farmer. Maybe on the Farmville Game on our Rs 25000 smartphones it does! But not in real life!
Let me be upfront and say, that I myself am not prepared to do such work. Why, you ask? Because I cannot do it. I'm being honest here. Household chores are different; those I will do. But not other more strenuous things.
So I will swallow the pinch of salt and admit my dependency on outside migrant labour. Because I'm prepared to pay marginally more to a Goan labourer who proactively offers to do a blue-collar job. But I don't have the face to demand, and the audacity (read: Elitism) to expect that another Goan brother should do something that I am not prepared to do myself.
And unless we are personally prepared to construct our own house, or build own roads, we should be prepared for the economic downturn in the coming months!
I believe that my Goan brethren should focus on bigger things in life. We should maintain our dignity of labour, but also maintain our ambitions!
