Public voices can never be silenced
Environment Minister Alexio Sequeira on Friday reportedly conceded that lack of will and absence of coordination between the government departments is the cause behind violation of sound ban restrictions beyond 10 pm.
He also mulled convening a joint meeting of the concerned departments to enforce the sound restrictions. A hundred-odd protestors from Anjuna and Vagator met on Friday to send out a strong message that the voice of the people will not be silenced.
Obviously the clubs playing loud music beyond the stipulated time are defying the Court order on sound restrictions. Not being able to get a good night’s sleep can affect the health of the citizens, especially the elderly.
Students preparing for exams and doing their daily homework are affected by the loud music being played even before the 10 pm deadline. The protesters, many of whom are senior citizens and little children, cannot be expected to go anywhere close to these clubs which may have employed bouncers. The affected citizens cannot be expected to protest every single night.
It is learnt that the music starts as soon as the protesters turn their back. Only a raid by the authorities of those premises playing loud music will bear fruit. South Goa MP Capt Viriato Fernandes who has been taking up issues of Goa in Parliament, needs to come to the rescue of the people fighting against loud music by taking up the matter with the central leadership.
Adelmo Fernandes, Vasco
Why play loud music and inconvenience others?
When we play music in our homes the volume is set at a level to entertain the family members within the premises and not our neighbours and neighbourhood.
Similarly, in our vehicles the volume of the audio set, is much lower so that people sitting in the vehicle can hear and talk to one another, and the driver can hear the other vehicles on the road communicate using the sound of their horn. Here too volume within the car is not loud to entertain other motorists or pedestrians. A sound engineer will tell you, the louder the music, so too is the distortion in the quality of the sound.
My ‘Question’ is, what is the need to up music volume and cause inconvenience to others?
Would the employees of an establishment be comfortable with their neighbours blasting music during their break time/resting hours in the morning? Live and Let Live – we are humans!
Albert E Zuzarte, Guirim
Improve working conditions for docs
In the aftermath of gruesome rape and murder of young resident doctor at RG Kar Govt Medical College and Hospital, Kolkatta, the political parties have started their act of blame game accusing one another, calling for protests all over with a shutdown-like scenario nationwide.
One needs to ask, are these really a consolation to the young doctor’s parents?
There should be no doubt that we all want the rapists must be caught at the earliest, tried in FastTrack courts and given capital punishment. But let’s not end there, we need to look beyond this “Fire-fighting Approach.. if there is a fire, fight the fire and extinguish it, and forget. We need to look for the root causes… or else this incident will be just forgotten without learning a lesson.
Like we have moved away from the case of nurse who was sexually assaulted by a male sweeper at Mumbai’s KEM Hospital. That was in early 70s, and even after 50 years, we witnessed such cases repeating very often, unmoved and forgotten.
We seriously need to look at the system, the environment and the working conditions for our junior doctors. We need to understand the working conditions of young doctors in public hospitals. Young doctors are out protesting, angered by the incident. Their voices silently draw our attention towards our deteriorating public healthcare system. We have often seen our junior doctors are made to work for long hours, 36 hours nonstop, covering up for an inadequate system, lack of manpower, unavailability of good equipment. We have seen our young doctors are made to push stretchers, rush to blood bank to get blood pouch one at a time, and rush to chemists in the hospital to get medicines for the patient, jobs that are otherwise done by ward boys and girls. No work or mandatory rest hour requirements followed or monitored. There are no limits on working hours for junior doctors in India. This type of system, in a dysfunctional environment is considered as an efficient training for our young doctors.
Today we share our anger our outrage on Facebook and WhatsApp, and soon these all will subside, and we will carry on with our lives. Have our voices reached to those ears who are in position and in power to make the changes? Time will tell..!
Menin Dias, by email
Counselling a must for medical students
The Maharashtra government has to be lauded for its decision to appoint two psychiatric consultants in all medical colleges. This move is aimed at helping the highly stressed students in navigating and overcoming anxiety and depression.
By the nature of their work, both the undergraduate and post graduate medical students are prone to anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts.
Between 2018 and 2022, 64 UGs and 58 PGs reportedly took their own lives ostensibly due to severe anxiety and depression. Students discontinuing their studies due to stress and strain often goes unreported. Apart from the obvious personal loss, the society stands to be affected because there is an acute paucity of qualified doctors in India.
A National Medical Commission (NMC) online survey says that every third PG student in India has suicidal thoughts at any point in his/her course. It has suggested reduction in work hours and periodic vacations to unburden the medicos.
The State appointed psychiatric counsellors need to go through the NMC report as well and analyse factors contributing to the worrisome trend among medicos. Putting in place an exhaustive roadmap for boosting the mental health of medical students is the need of the hour. Other states, too, need to emulate the Maharashtra government’s decision.
Ganapathi Bhat, Akola
The futility of wars
There are many rivalries and wars in the world but nothing compares to the Israel versus Palestine conflict which threatens to even end in a World War III.
I sincerely hope that I am wrong and that peace and love will win over hate and wars.
Matias Lobo, Tivim
