PANJIM: A meeting of Comunidade components on Saturday deliberated upon the issue of a larger role of women in Comunidades. The meeting held at Casa De Povo hall, Goa Velha drew a sizeable assembly.
On this contentious issue, Adv Savio Correia, pointed out that since Article 20 of the Code of Comunidades, states that the gauncars should be male descendents and Article 14 of the Constitution of India guarantees equality, leaving out the women, their descendents or lineage could be legally challenged. He suggested that Comunidades must look into this and that the rights could be given to women, but without the right to their descendents.
The right of descendents is one point of contention that had been brought up by the people.
Dr Lourdes Bravo da Costa Rodrigues pointed out to the difference between a gauncar and an acionista (shareholder) and said that a gauncar can be an acionista, but an acionista cannot be a gauncar.
She also said that Comunidades have a lot of duties that are not happening now.
Dr Meenacshi Martins, pointed out that the Code of Comunidades was drafted at a time when it was a patriarchal society, but women have been the stronghold of the community. She said she supported women being part of the functioning of the Comunidades and that if it doesn’t happen, then it would lead to approaching the courts.
Adv Shailesh Henriques was clear that there is a need for change, the only question is how to do it. He suggested that the issue be deliberated with an open mind, listen to reason, listen to discussion and then take a decision. He also said that the government would possibly be happy to assist in this change.
A second part of the discussion was a case study of Comunidade of Anjuna, where Michael Mendonca, a gauncar of Anjuna explained how the general body of the Comunidade had been able to prevail over the managing committee to force it to take decisions in favour of the gauncars. He gave the example of how recently they acted on the Sunburn EDM event issue and got the organisers of the festival to pay an increased amount of rent.
The question and answer part drew a flurry of suggestions, which was moderated by Alexandre Moniz Barbosa, who chaired the session.
