JOSE MARIA MIRANDA
Goa, just like the rest of India, has faced emigration for cen turies, mainly for employ ment and education, but for some other reasons too. The levels of dissatis faction, unemployment and frustration among the people, in the last several years, have constrained millions to migrate and over two lakhs to renounce Indian citizenship annual ly. The saddest part of em igration is the export of the great talent India has been endowed with. This has made the country poorer and deprived it of a great resource, which the host country benefitted from. Sadly also, Indians are today facing hatred and violence in their adopted countries, not because of racial discrimination, as we claim, but because of their behaviour, attempts to im pose their own culture and refusal to adhere to rules and regulations, like they did in India. We have wit nessed how unregulated and noisy Indian festivals have annoyed the local population. One common complaint is that students in particular, do not con form to the rules regarding permissible hours of work and wages. These put the locals at a disadvantage and is surely not accept able to them. Goans migrated to Portu guese and British colonies as also to India, mainly in search of jobs and better education. Barring the Es cola Medico-Cirurgica de Goa, there was no other professional educational institution worth the name in Goa, prior to 1961. Gulf countries provided excel lent employment oppor tunities and good salaries to Goans. We owe a debt of gratitude to these coun tries, as migration brought financial stability to thou sands of Goan families. The hopes of Goans that employment opportunities would improve after Goa’s merger with India, have been dashed and in fact, the number of Goans who have migrated for reasons of em ployment, has skyrocketed, with practically an exodus, especially after the facility of acquiring Portuguese na tionality. The only comfort we can derive from this is that Goans are now gain fully employed abroad, as they could have turned into anti-socials had they re mained unemployed in Goa Goans were forced to mi grate even to other States in India for employment and much better wages, as Goa has very few well-paid jobs available. Salaries paid in Goa are sometimes insufficient to support the earner, much less his/her family. Not sure whether even the minimum wage rule is being implement ed everywhere in Goa. But surely, if there is no Goan taker, there are many oth ers. I wonder whether the Government has the will to investigate into the low salaries being paid in Goa. And I am not talking of dai ly wage manual workers, who earn in Goa much bet ter than they do elsewhere, because of shortage of such labour in Goa. The reason for migration of Goans, in recent times, is that successive Govern ments have failed to provide good employment opportu nities by bringing in indus tries and establishments, capable of employing lo cals. Good infrastructure has also been neglected in Goa and measures to make Goa self-sufficient have also been ignored. Today Goa faces a very worrying problem of hav ing an aging population left to fend for themselves, as almost every second family has their children abroad, these having migrated be cause of employment op portunities, better wages and standards of living. Our youth have not left their land, parents and near ones willingly, but were forced into it. During my two recent trips abroad, I met many Goans and none of them had anything good to say about Goa.
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Besides the filth, indiscipline and difficulties in having the smallest job done in gov ernment offices, they spoke of bribes demanded, delays and corruption prevailing everywhere, with absence of governance, leaving people frustrated and de pressed. Some spoke of heavy bribes having to be paid for jobs, which would have to be recovered by in creasing corruption in the system. Many, especially those in the Gulf, who had decided to return back to Goa, have now opted to set tle abroad. So, Goan popu lation in Goa will be further depleted, with the certain ty that Goans abroad will soon far outnumber them in Goa, if they have not al ready. Goans living abroad have built large and beau tiful houses and renovated their palatial mansions, especially in our villages, with the hope that they themselves or their prog eny would one day return to their roots. But this hope too seems to have been lost. Just as a former CM said once : ‘Vochunk dhi re tankam’, when someone pointed to large number of Goans acquiring Portu guese passports, this Gov ernment will be happy that it can advance more easily their objectives through Mhaje Ghar scheme and other laws to grab prop erties, alleging them to be unclaimed or with no heirs. Our villagers are rap idly getting emptier. Goans no longer have large fami lies, like ours and previous generations did. With one or two kids, who may not have even been born in Goa or left Goa early, with no desire perhaps to even visit Goa, when their par ents are no more, one won ders whether there will be Goans left in Goa in few years or decades from now.
One argument often posed to Goans, when they talk of uncontrolled influx of migrants is that Goans too are migrants either in other Indian States or for eign countries. Undoubt edly true, but Goans do not encroach or grab other people’s hand, nor do they live in filthy conditions and dirty the surroundings. They generally adhere to the rules, know to adjust to the customs and traditions of the place and have the knack of adapting them selves to the new environ ment, though sadly, some who migrated in recent years to UK have brought a bad name to Goa by indulg ing in drunkenness and un ruly behaviour.
For reasons mentioned above as also because of favouritism towards vote banks both in land grab bing and employment, Goans resent outsiders, though they know that we can’t live without them, just as other countries can’t without migrants. We, Goans, also need to acknowledge that we face stiff competition, because of our long hours of siesta, shorter hours of work, less hard work and many other factors. Goans were very honest, in the past and many still are, but dishon esty has now become high ly contagious. If “Liberation”, which raised our expectations, failed us, our rulers and politicians have miserably let us down by ignoring the plight of unemployed Goans and showing lack of concern for and containing their compelling exodus. (The author is a retired banker.)
