Team Herald
MARGAO: Goa’s first all women’s Romtamel band which is a traditional Goan percussion band performed at a handicraft exhibition on SGPDA on Monday. Dressed in a similar traditional sari, the women shocked visitors with their performance. People quickly surrounded the band and watched the women play the taso, dhol, manjeera and other percussion instruments.
This Romtamel band is one of two bands that have been recently trained by the Rural Development Agency and are a part of Umeed, a woman village organisation of Shiroda. The other band is based in Panchwadi.
The band is comprised of 20 women with more under training. The RDA Officer in-charge of the self-help groups and village women’s organisation, Ms Ekrupa Mahale informed that the band is available for hire for events and functions.
“We are giving them training in various skills where they can gain employment. There are around 200 women who are a part of the organisation. Of this some have taken up catering services, others have taken up coconut shell carving and some have received training to perform in the romtamel band”, informed Mahale. The Group has three stalls in the exhibition currently ongoing on SGPDA ground where they are selling beautiful handicraft items such as jute bags, coconut shell chandeliers, lamps etc.”, informed Mahale
Mahale also shared the goals and challenges they face. “Food stall businesses come from outside the state and sell at fairs and exhibitions in Goa. We want to systematically re-capture the market from these people so that Goans can get quality, hygienic and traditional foods. But getting the FDA licence has been a challenge.”, she said. Mahale hopes that the FDA will help the self-help groups get a temporary licence for food stalls within the least amount of time.
The group also faces a major challenge over price when competing with products from other States. The prices of the Jute bags sold at their stalls were higher than those sold at other stalls from Bihar. Mahale explained that they have to import jute to Goa which increases their cost whereas manufactures from Bihar get the jute at a lower cost.
Interestingly, none of the stalls from other States had any GST registration as mandated by the recent notification of the State Commercial Tax department.
Another goal of the women’s organisation of Shiroda is that they want to grow their agriculture business. “These women are also growing and selling 16 types of local vegetables. We are asking the women to take over abandoned fields and start cultivating produce like sweet potatoes and chillies which are affordable and have a good demand in the market.”, said Mahale. She appealed to Goans to support the organisation by purchasing the goods manufactured by Umeed and even hiring the band for their event and function.
