<But the fact that these two issues -- employment, good governance -- were the big ones are an indicator, or symptom, of the larger problems facing Goa today. Unemployment has been happening because of a rapid rise in the population. There are simply not enough jobs going around for everybody. There has been large-scale inward migration into Goa in the last few years and this has obviously eaten into the jobs. The pattern of employment has also changed. The inward migration also happens because it fulfills a need.>
An informative and incisive article. But it tends to take us back eventually to the bug-bear of sectarianism/communalism/"goacentrism" etc whose undertones are very marked. We need to dig down instead of falling back on these emotive, abstract, catch-all phrases. Under the skin of "employment" there is the problem of "employability" (which is reflected in inward migration etc). And under "employability" are the issues of education, and investment, and problem solving abilities on the job. Investment in turn poses problems of infrastructure and technological choices. Beneath these are problems of the environment which has to be conserved for posterity. Similarly under "governance" there is the question of education specifically in terms of civic sense and peaceful conflict resolution. Also the nuts and bolts of a whole range of activites such as electricity, water supply, garbage disposal, sewerage, transportation, law and order, health, communication, etc etc. All these go a long way to determine the overall standard of living in Goa. The lesson may be that we should not accept facile arguments and explanations such as "communalism" which are bandied about nowadays at the drop of a hat but push for action and results on concrete fronts in the life of the people of Goa.
