Churches at Old Goa have for long been grappling with the problem of indecently attired visitors entering the churches and have in the past taken some steps to rectify it. This included providing shawls to cover their bodies before entering the church for those women who are indecently dressed. Having realised that such a step has not had the expected results, it is understood that the authorities at Se Cathedral have begun charging a nominal fee of Rs 100 for shawls provided to indecently clad visitors if they are to enter the cathedral. This was necessitated because, according to the church authorities, when the shawls were provided free of cost to the visitors at the Bom Jesus Basilica, they were not returned to the church after the visit.
Thousands of visitors enter the churches at Old Goa every day. Besides several ladies being indecently attired, it must be said that the domestic tourists make a lot of noise in the churches. They merrily go on clicking snaps and selfies even when the church services are going on. Besides the females being indecently attired, the males are many a time also not properly dressed. They (the males) enter the churches at Old Goa in short pants and sleeveless banians. It appears that many of them have come to see the churches directly from the beaches. Some are also seen wearing hats, caps and sunglasses while in the church. The ‘model dress code’ needs to be extended to the males as well.
A strong message needs to be sent to the domestic tourists that the sanctity and decorum needs to be maintained while the visitors enter the churches at Old Goa. This could be done by depicting the proper guidelines to be followed for visitors who would be visiting the churches at Old Goa at the various hotels at Old Goa, in its vicinity as well as the hotels located in city of Panjim.
Tourist guides should also be instructed to pass the message to the tourists of proper dressing and maintaining decorum while they are in the church. Given the large number of visitors to the Se Cathedral and Basilica of Bom Jesus, several volunteers are required to ensure proper dress code and enforcing proper decorum among the tourists. These staff members need to be in uniform so that they are differentiated from the other parishioners.
