There is nothing unusual about her. Like hundreds around her, she has a regular job that keeps her busy from 9 to 5 and then she returns home to prepare dinner for her family. At night when she has the time, she goes online and checks developments on things that matter to her. Let’s call her Sandhya, she is not afraid to articulate her position on matters that concern her. Like her there have been thousands of Goans who have been making their positions known very clearly against the double tracking, Mollem as well as plans to make Goa a coal hub.
Dr Melissa Luis is a sports physiotherapist who does not take a step back while making her position known online about the projects in Goa. She is involved in awareness programs as part of a Global Shakers community in Panjim. She said “As an individual I attend protests and voice my opposition to these projects. I attended a few protests, now I will be going with my best friend and more people are now joining in.” This she felt was due to the campaign online where awareness videos and posts were being creating regularly.
Harshada Gauns of Aranya an NGO that on environmental concerns said with respect to Mollem, they had worked with environmentalists to spread awareness on the ground as well as online. They had also organized a series of webinars which was very well received and which was being watched by more people because it was saved on the Facebook page. She said the younger generation was more clued into the digital world and accessed and reacted to information posted online. Over a thousand kids had watched the videos and she said they were planning to do more in the next couple of months.
An artist who has been very involved in the online campaign is Trisha Dias Sabir. She said “Remember, because we had all these projects being pushed ahead by the government, we decided to use more social engagement on social media. People learned to a lot through social media. People sang songs, wrote poetry and it invited people in a passive way to show solidarity and state their stand and express their passion and wonder for the forests. The online campaign helped show the deeper connection of people living in Goa to the forest”. She said art and storytelling helped show this connect and also attract so many volunteers. She said “They give us updates on the legal developments which we then send to artists to present in pictorial form so that people can understand. We have film makers giving us their time and we have all this creative work which is generated which goes online which is driving traffic and helping people keep track of what is going on in these projects.”
Saieshya Salgaocar a student volunteer has been handling the Instagram account for the campaign against the Mollem poject. She said “We get a lot of responses from students from Goa and from places like Belgaum. Every day we get people reposting messages and 15 percent add new posts. There is a lot happening on the account everyday”.
Nikita handles the twitter account for campaign against the Mollem project. She smiled and said “There is a lot of activity on the account with a new notification or post every minute on how the government is not listening.”
Perhaps the man who should be very pleased should be Orville DOurado of Goencho Ekvott who has fired up the people of Goa. He said “Social media has helped us tremendously. We have used Face book, Twitter, Instagram to spread awareness of our campaign. It helped us get 6000 people at Chandor in two days when we planned the protest. Today we are thousands of members online who keep a track of what we are doing. We also have 31 other NGO’s and support groups in Goa who are with us. If there is unity in the organization, then people will not be confused and will be willing to take the fight to the railways”.
The platforms to protests have certainly changed over a period of time but the passion of the average Goan is on a high.
