Women of Portuguese era in Goa who had unusually large families make front page news in the newspapers these days. There was an article recently with the photo of the woman who gave birth to fourteen children. In olden days or could we say the golden days, it was not rare to hear of women having more than a dozen kids. Last week I was invited to the 80th birthday celebration of my relative in South Goa. Soon after thanksgiving Eucharistic celebration, there was a sumptuous buffet thrown at the residence. I was surprised to hear from one of the brothers that they were fourteen siblings in all. Only a few of them survived. The Portuguese Government encouraged large families but the question often crops up whether they were recipients of any award from the Government. As the woman from Palolem, Canacona, said she was not approached by any Government Official in that respect.
However, there is a possibility that select Portuguese speaking people were given the awards. May be I am wrong. Then as now, there was discrimination by the Government. The elites were the recipients of goodies and the common people were left to fend for themselves. I recall my first public exams of Segundo Grau in Mapusa. The school where the exams were held was situated next to the old Post Office, the building still exists today. The jury conducting the exams questioned the rationale of giving good grades to sons and daughters of the common villagers whereas the wards of judges, professors and high Government Officials were given such grades on grounds that they go for further studies in Portuguese at the Lyceum. It was presumed that the village folks would only go to the fields.
It is right that these days the women as well as men prefer one or two children. The life was not easy for women in the golden days. They had no gas for cooking, cars/bikes for travel, home gadgets like washing machines, mixers and vacuum cleaners, but they could still raise fourteen children. These were God fearing families and led simple lives.
Bravo to the woman of Palolem and others like her.
