March 8 is celebrated the world over as International Women’s Day. This year, the United Nations’ theme is, “For All Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment.” The theme calls for action that can unlock equal rights, power and opportunities for all and a feminist future, where no one is left behind. Central to this vision is empowering the next generation—youth, particularly young women and adolescent girls—as catalysts for lasting change.
The World Economic Forum has painted a grim picture, based on the current rate of progress, that full gender parity can be reached only by the year 2158, that is 133 years hence. The International Women’s Day website has a different theme based on the above analysis, ie. ‘Accelerate Action for gender equality’ with increased momentum and urgency in addressing the systemic barriers and biases that women face, both in personal and professional spheres.
On March 6, two days ahead of International Women’s Day, the macabre murder of a five-year-old innocent girl in Usgao, sent a chill down every Goan’s spine, who has known the state to be one of the most peaceful in India.
Earlier speculation was rife was carried out as part of a black magic ritual to help the couple conceive a child, however, the police ruled out this possibility, stating that forensic experts had found no evidence of occult practices at the crime scene.
The top brass of the police now claim that the deceased child’s mother and the accused woman had a heated argument over a matter and in a fit of rage, the accused couple took the child inside their house and killed her
Whatever may be the reason, being 25 years into the 21st Century, being an aspiring 5 trillion dollar economy and flaunting rapid progress, bullet trains and slogans such as Beti Bachao and Beti Padao, the kidnapping, murder and gruesome burial in the backyard, of an innocent girl, is a national shame with regard to gender equality and respect for women, especially the girl child.
Since it qualifies for the rarest of rare, brutal and gruesome case, locals of the vicinity are so shocked and filled with such revulsion that they have called for quick trial and capital punishment. The unfortunate mother of the girl, a Goan was married to a man from Ratnagiri. For two years, the wife and the two girls suffered terribly at the hands of the father. Due to this the mother decided to return to her mother’s house in Usgao. They had been staying there for about a year and the neighbour, the childless couple --Babasaheb Alat, 52, and his wife befriended the girls. On March 5, the wife of Alat is seen on CCTV footage taking the girl into the house. The girl was not seen coming out of the house. Alat sacrificed the girl and buried her in the backyard and kept a huge vessel over the grave.
On March 6, he tried to fool the police by even joining the search party, since the girl had been missing from March 5. The CCTV footage provided the clinching evidence to nail the migrant couple.
The once peaceful state of Goa, has gained such notoriety that it is now being known for crimes and murders, not only in the national, but international circuit for crimes. A frustrated Chief Minister of Goa has come out against these crimes, saying that most of the crimes are being committed by migrants. The demography of Goa is undergoing a rapid change from the 1980s, due to the growth of tourism and large scale influx of migrants due to the construction and real estate boom.
Politically, the migrants have become a boon to the politicians, since slums of 3000 to 4000 migrants form potent and ‘political fortune swinging’ vote banks for MLAs in almost every constituency. The recent statement of an MLA that no one can touch Moti Dongor is an indication of how politicians protect these vote banks and may even interfere with police conducting raids in such slums. Such vote banks exist in almost every constituency, due to which the MLAs win.
Though by and large there is sufficient gender equality based on various HDI parametres among the three major religions in Goa, within the family, at the societal level and legally, with the implementation of the common civil code by the Portuguese and high level of education, there is still scope for improvement in terms of political participation, job opportunities, etc for women.
The Goa government will have to think of targeted strategies to ensure gender equality, education and empowerment of women in the slums as almost 40 percent of the population of Goa can now be presumed to be migrant.