A Goa we just don’t see
It’s about a state which lived in its villages, and is now giving way to urbanisation, says FREDERICK NORONHA
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
The other day, I learnt that a neighbour had sold off all her buffaloes. It was increasingly becoming difficult to graze the cattle, and obviously economic pressures were there too. They just kept one back, and her young daughter was quite upset by the loss of their domestic animals.
For the newspaper reading classes, the challenges of maintaining your buffaloes in today’s Goa is hardly an issue. But things are changing fast, squeezing different people in differing ways here. The government boasts that our State is fast urbanising. that the GDP is growing, and that the economy is expanding at an unprecedented rate (never mind all the biting inflation).
Many are getting new jobs. Our patterns of growth are even luring in people from across State borders. But what about the traditional jobs that are getting lost, in the meanwhile?
An elderly grand-aunt of mine lived an entire life in the Goa of the late 20th century without ever holding on to a “job.” She did work alright and lived off it. The village, in those times, was still bountiful. Villagers planted paddy and coconut groves needed tending too.
Does anyone remember the pigs and chickens, that were part of the homes, we grew up in? And for one day every week, a villager volunteered to take the entire vaddo’s flock of goats to the village hill to graze.
(Thanks to the superior wisdom of one politician, part of that hill has been turned into an industrial estate. The domestic animals no longer make economic sense, having to compete with the faster returns that other sectors promise.)
This is not to romanticise the frugal lifestyles of the past. Romanticising poverty and scarcity is anyway, unfair. Most of us would not like to go back to those times. Also, while we talk reams about it, we would like our own children to access better life. And quite rightly so.
But, at the same time, what happens to the significant section in Goa that is fast losing out their old livelihood, even while they are not being fully equipped to cope with a transition, to better jobs and opportunity?
When I walk down the village roads, at least some of those I encounter, have lived in exactly the same situation that I knew them, three decades ago. They haven’t benefitted from the statistics industry that Goa has created so efficiently, in recent decades. Their unfulfilled hopes and aspirations or dreams don’t show up in glossy brochures and advertisements on Goa’s achievements, over the past five decades.
Even official statistics give a hint about how traditional occupations have dwindled. Traditional fishermen once numbered in the tens of thousands. Today you hardly see them on the shore. Rampons have vanished for the most. Toddy-tapping was a thriving profession that employed so many. Where have its workers gone?
Goa was once known for its salt sector, not just across India, but overseas too. Our governments, regardless of label, have gone about banning the use of “common” salt. At the same time, researchers like Reyna Sequeira have attempted to study the current state of this traditional sector in villages like Arpora, Batim and Agarvaddo. From their work, it is clear that there are many pressures that have led the axe to fall on traditional Goa.
Yes, everyone would like to move upwards in life. Our traditional lifestyles have been caught in a mix of low returns and, what is worse, low social status. Our caste-ridden society has long given the lowest position to those, who have been doing the most backbreaking and crucial work.
But simply destroying these sectors en mass doesn’t make any sense. With a neglect of our rural areas, and jugglery in terms of definition, Goa is today being listed as a State with the highest level of urbanisation nationwide. Yet, to paraphrase Gandhi, Goa still lives in its villages. In the jumble of such claims, the sustenance of many is simply being snapped.
At times, when faced with a guilty conscience, the decision-makers and intellectual leaders of Goa make it seem as if a little charity can solve the problem. But in changing times, obviously much more is needed.
Goa lacks the mechanisms through which those based here or outside Goa, could share their knowledge and skills with people whom it could critically help. We lack the village institutions that could help our society to self-teach itself the skills, to cope with the challenges of tomorrow.
Yet, there is need to avoid being unduly pessimistic too. In my own village, there are institutions from the past — village schools that have done us proud, clubs built by expat villagers, the church and temples, sports and youth clubs, and more.
One local school has recently built up a ‘Special Section’ for children with learning disabilities. Local homes for the elderly have been there for some time now, and a non-government initiative has also resulted in part-time medical facilities in the village too — supported by some non-residents. A children’s library, afternoon extra-classes for weaker students, and a centre for poor children are among the other initiatives.
But all this still excludes many who are invisible in today’s Goa. A few villages like Loutolim and Siolim have well-conceived centres for technical education, especially for boys who might not fit into the generic mainstream education. There is another such initiative at Corlim. But even good institutions sometimes suffer from a lack of students.
Technical education cannot be left to government initiatives alone. A recently-released Church directory shows how vast the social infrastructure of this institution is. But how much of it gets utilised to the optimum, and how much just fits into the narrow, if not restrictive funding-driven schemes of the government? Why do schools, with the entire physical infrastructure they have, need to be kept closed for almost half a day? Just because the government pays teachers grants only going by this formula?
Life-long learning, career guidance and counselling, playgrounds for children and village libraries are something today’s Goa badly lacks. In our anger to point to what is wrong with our State, we also fail to see what is possible.
Where are our village-level appropriate technology centres? Where are initiatives to make local agriculture more remunerative? We also fail to see the mismatch between the lack of Goa’s ability to grow the food it needs, and the inflationary pressures of having to buy vegetables from neighbouring states. Likewise, isn’t it ironic to have so many
job-seekers unemployed at the same time as when we can’t find the right people to fit a job?
Unless we get started somewhere, we will be only dreaming!
+++
Tring…Tring, Hello
By Charlane Pereira
Do we really need mobile handsets? Are they a must in today’s fast moving competitive world? They are beneficial, when used to a certain extent, or they might be detrimental to health. Some studies have shown that increased cell usage could to lead to tumours and cancerous growth. Cell phones can lead to technological dependence. They can ruin one’s normal sleeping patterns. Cell phones can prove to be a nasty nuisance. Speaking on a cell at all hours is really bugging. Picture yourself taking a short nap in your favourite chair, when you hear the ring… or when you have some deadlines to be met… and you are burning the midnight oil trying to make sense of the heavy files lying on your working desk… or when you are talking to your beau when there is an important official call waiting on the line… or you are driving and hear the familiar beep of your mobile… neither do you want to escape (for it might be an important call from work) nor do you talk on the bugging phone while you are steering your car on the NH 17 (for fear of being fined by some corrupt traffic cops, though they may be right in this case). Cell phones can certainly drive a person nuts!
Studies show that Indians are badly hooked badly on to cell phones -7 hours of talk time a week and 56 messages on an average. I would like to categorise cell users into different categories. And it’s not difficult to spot them in today’s fast paced lifestyles.
1. Prestige and power showoffs: These are people who keep changing their cell phones. Old models of the phones are dumped and replaced with Blackberry sets. Prestige means a lot to such people, who try to show off their handsets to those in their friend circle.
2. Practical users: This category use their phones only in times of need. The need could range from a crisis situation to attending routine tasks in one’s life such as calling up to see whether your kids have reached home, etc.
3. Business bugs: These are ruthless, charming and efficient in their talk, Sales and marketing is the name of the game for such people. They increase their business contacts and then move in for a ‘sales kill’ with potential customers.
4. Young birds: Observe the youth of today! Most of their time is spent in the company of their precious possession that is their ‘very dear friend – the cell phone.’ This wireless technology helps them to keep in touch with friends, make more friends and engage in the common pastime of forwarding messages to their friends.
5. Love birdies: This includes people of all ages, people who are madly in love. They spend endless hours on the phone…since the landline connection offers its own set of limitations (with regard to portability). The love birdies buy cell phones which offer many schemes with regard to calls and the SMS service. Business thrives on people such as these, who frequent mobile recharge shops every few days.
6. Oldies: These are old birds that don’t keep themselves up with the modern times and haven’t learnt to be tech savvy. However, most of them hate this communicative technology that disrupts them from their deep slumbers at noontime. And those who try to learn how to operate this man made invention, may be in for a shock, when their messages sent across end up reaching wrong recipients.
7. Non users: These include all those who hate cell phones and like solitude and peace. They don’t own a cell phone and opine that the technology is a waste of money… You might be surprised that some of these include even the younger generation (though in few numbers).
8. Dual mobile set users: This lot includes all those who own two cell phones. Usually, this category covers the business bugs, which segregate their personal life and professional life. I guess they follow the principle of ‘divide and rule.’ Personal calls are taken on one phone and the business number is handed over only to those involved in business dealings.
Use cell phones as much as possible. But don’t earn the label of ‘cell phone addict.’ Cheers!
