Team Herald
MARGAO: Goa Livelihoods Forum, which is scheduled to present its white paper on survey of livelihoods in Goa to the Chief Minister tomorrow (Wednesday), said it would help the administration plan properly the required policies to address the problem facing Goa.
Briefing media persons, Charudatta Panighrai said future planning in Goa should be keeping the youth in mind as presently half of Goa’s population is aged below 35 years and added that planning should be aimed at providing good or self-employment.
He said they had interviewed around 3500 people symbolising all sections of society and added that this was a representative sample. He said one of the findings was that alternative methods of agriculture, handcrafts and rural industries will have to be promoted or thought of.
“Given the fact that Goa is a tourist destination, dairy farming is something the government could promote as there is tremendous requirement of milk in Goa,” he said and added that desalination of land to use it for co-operative faming could be one alternative.
He agreed that such system existed in Goa through the manos that have now become defunct and suggested that these age-old and time-tested mechanisms need to be revived to provide money making opportunities to people.
“Mining has stopped and the tourism industry is going through a roller coaster, it is time that Goans and particularly the youth get good employment or self-employment opportunities,” he said adding that they have made several such suggestions in the white paper.
While it took about 4 months to collect the data, another month was spent in collating the information and preparing the white paper.
Charudatta said they had prepared similar white papers for Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan and added that tribal funds are better utilised now in some States following their white paper.
