OP-ED :: Goa: A paradise lost? Police must act as professionals
Feb.04 : The actions of the police in some of the cases has not been above board. It is imperative they act professionally and speedily to handle any crime that is reported, rather than try to fob off complainants, as they sometimes tend to do. Professionalism is lacking in the force. If the police are seen as acting seriously in tackling a crime, then the correct message goes through to would-be criminals and law-breakers. That has obviously not been the case, or things would not have come to this pass. To some extent the way certain cases have been handled by some dubious police officers has resulted in Goa’s image taking a beating. However, the long arm of the law has eventually caught up with such officers and the accused. Still, it needs to be said that of all the places in India, none is safer for women than Goa. The media tends to focus on the few cases where things go wrong. In fact, tourists should also be more responsible and not go to public places skimpily dressed or shirtless. The 2009 annual British Behaviour Abroad report released by the British Foreign Office said that Britons are increasingly getting into trouble abroad, especially in alcohol and drug related cases. This does not absolve Goa of its abysmal level of policing and crime detection, but it helps put things in perspective. In view of the bad reputation that Goa has been acquiring and the bad name its police force has been getting, police have to be doubly careful so that no one accuses them of protecting the accused, and an impression is not created that in Goa the victims get harassed. That said, the police force and officials work under a lot of constraints in India -- understaffed, overworked, sent for long hours on bandobast duty, ill-equipped and without the kind of resources that you would find in more advanced countries where most of Goa’s visitors come from. If the Western yardstick is used, our police will be found lacking in crime detection, handling of complaints, and methodology used. Forensic or chemical analysis reports take long here because of fewer approved laboratories. A victim who has already undergone immense trauma is likely to consider the delays a negative experience and is apt to see herself as an object of harassment or victimisation. Police personnel have to be more attuned to this. Sensitivity levels have to be vastly improved for victims of crime, Indians and foreigners. Lyndon Monteiro is vice-chairman of Goa Tourism Development Corporation *** Goa needs an image change Going by the recent headlines and TV coverage, one would think Goa is the “rape capital of India”. The impression created is that Goa is a paradise of hedonism, and the epicentre of drugs, that people here spend their days in a haze of frolic and sexual indulgence. To those who live in Goa, the picture is vastly different. Despite its outward Westernisms, and the hordes of foreign tourists who descend on it, Goa is still very much a god-fearing and law-abiding place. Hindus and Catholics, who mainly live here, have the same traditional virtues as elsewhere in the country. The image of a permissive society and “easy pickings” on the beach has led to the invasion of Goa by a certain brand of holidaymakers who believe that foreigners are willing prey to sexual advances. This monstrous belief has fuelled the young, prurient Indian male who visits Goa to fulfil his fantasies. Fundamentally, it is not a matter of poor policing. It has been Goa’s ill luck that the recent child molestation case has come close on the heels of another case of rape of a young Russian woman allegedly by a former political aspirant. But to tar the entire state borders on hysteria, not unlike the hysteria generated in the case of Scarlett Keeling by the notorious British tabloids. (Curiously, the case of a young Russian couple brutally murdered on Vagator beach just three months before the Scarlett case received little media coverage.) The figures of sexually motivated crimes against foreigners speak for themselves. According to British Behaviour Abroad (2008-09), released by UK’s Foreign Office, British tourists suffered 57 cases of rape and sexual assault in Spain, 37 in Greece, 36 in Turkey, and 34 in Egypt. The corresponding figure is just three in India. Similar are the statistics for Russian tourists visiting Goa, but the official Russian reaction to the crime has gone overboard. While the shock and pain of the parents in the recent case of the Russian child is understandable, can the Russian ambassador explain the stabbings of Indian medical students in his country? Or, of the rise of the Russian mafia and pimps who have found safe havens on the beaches of Morjim in north Goa? Goa still remains as safe a place as any in India, though it often seems that the popular media is as prurient and thrill-seeking as the criminals themselves. Controversies over Goa become grossly magnified because of its exaggerated glamour quotient. Manohar Shetty is a poet, writer and editor of the book Ferry Crossing: Short Stories from Goa The Age Debate
