Will ban on migrant labour serve Goa's cause? Are the migrant labour of Goa, locally known as Ghantis, who form an integral part of Goa's economy and life, responsible for many a wrong-doing in Goa? Are they a problem or a solution to the day to day needs of Goans?.
By Armstrong Vaz ARE GHANTIS ( people who come from across the ghats) - as migrant labourers are referred to in Goa - a curse and responsible for many a wrong-doing in Goa or do we really need them to serve the day to day needs of Goans in all walks of life? 74-year-old Jannat Bi has had been an integral part of the Hindu crematorium in Margao for the last 45 years as its care taker and helper. A few kilometres away on Goa's coast at Colva, I ran into Shiva Mandre, yet another Dharwad-born migrant, who first came to Goa in the winter of 1985 and kept coming thereafter and ultimately made Goa his second home. He is a guide for tourists on their bird watching trips in Benaulim and he has a pie in a lot of other tourist related activities - from selling books to renting cycles. His wife on the other hand engages in cooking classes for tourists. And if Shiva and Jannat have been integral part of the Goan economy and life, can they be blamed for it? In the world of economics, it is the survival of the fittest. The two like many other migrants have been fighting for survival. In an open economy, can someone deprive an individual his right to live and do the work of his choice in a free country? The two are just a few Ghantis who have moved in to fill the void. Some of them have been thinking out of the box, not just to survive but lead a comfortable lifestyle in Goa. Hats off to them. Where Goans dare venture, they have soiled their hands and emerged successful. Yes, we find less and less Goans soiling their hands in manual labour in our cities. Closer home in Cuncolim village, I came across the difficulties the church administration people had to go through, to arrange for a grave digger in the absence of the regular one, who was away in Tamilnadu for his annual vacation. The local man who had volunteered to fill in the void could not cope up with it. In the end, it was the Ghantis from Assolna village who had to be used to do the job. Fortunately, the regular Pedo (grave digger) from Tamilnadu has turned up back in Cuncolim to take up his job. And the Pedo's and Jannat Bi's are not the only Ghantis whom the Goans rely on to do the low menial works. Go to Margao's wholesale fish marker and the retail fish marker and you will find all the boys helping in cleaning and cutting of fish are Ghantis. In Margao city, the commercial capital of Goa, most of the scavengers are Ghantis and Clinton Vaz, who was asked to help the corporation of the city of Panjim from 2005 to 2007, to manage their waste said: "We need the migrants, and we need them because there are a lot of jobs in Goa that the Goans aren't prepared to do. Little over 180 staff are employed just to clear away the city's garbage. Of this figure, just 54 are Goans. We will continue to have migrants coming in to fill in the gaps in available jobs. I think that a city with many rag-pickers is a healthy sign that the city is recycling its waste in spite of no help from the citizens. And this is just one example of the usefulness of a certain migrant community. Remove all the migrants and the city will stop functioning in a few weeks if not days." So as more and more Goans prefer to migrate and take up Portuguese and Australian citizenship, while others prefer to work in America, Gulf and in the shipping industries, the Ghantis will continue to serve the Goan society. But what is needed is the need to curtail the flow of more Ghantis into Goa. How much we need and what is in excess needs a study. And we need to demolish the slums and make provision for better housing for this migrant labour. Simply calling for all stops to migrants into Goa is not a final solution to a problem, which set its roots after liberation and the tree has since then grown to provide shelter to many. Till then Jannat Bi and Shiva Mandre and a few others like them would continue to carry on their daily chores in Goa, helping Goans in different walks of life. http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=140485 ~(^^)~ Avelino
