Evescape

The Dirty Picture Armed with plastic  tambio  (local word for tumbler or lotta ), tribal women leaders from the talukas of Quepem, Sanguem and Canacona -- led by Women Front --  marched to the South Goa District Collector's office on November 17 -- ahead of World Toilet Day -- and  petitioned the Goa government for its failure to provide them toilets . Calling that toilets for every household is an urgent need that cannot be ignored anymore, these women -- who are forced to defecate in the open -- threatened to launch an agitation if their demands are not met.  This article attempts to bring to fore their deplorable condition. Its about 6.45 pm and the evening gloom is just setting in. Sitting in their cow-dung painted courtyard, Nilavati Velip (50 something), her three daughters and two neices are just growing desperate. Few colourful plastic tambios ( lottas ) are lined up under a flowering tree, next to a plastic drum, half filled with wate...

A tale of Vavurla  While successive governments in Goa have claimed development as their core agenda, the condition of a mountain village called Vavurla in Quepem Constituency speaks a different story. Besides being completely cut out from the rest of Goa in the absence of a motor-able road, it is devoid of basic infrastructural facilities -- thanks to the apathy of the political representatives & authorities.  Archana Velip (20), a resident of the mountain village of Vavurla, walks for over an hour through the steep and winding mountain, everyday, to get to the nearest road to take a bus to go to her college in Canacona taluka, which is further located some 20 kms away from here. Scaling the mountain, through a dense forest, to get back home is even more risky, and takes her an hour-and-a-half.  Her day starts as early as 5 am. "With no toilet facilities in our households, women wake up early, before dawn, to relieve themselves. Its risky in the ra...

WOMEN as LEADERS for CHANGE Despite comprising more than 50 percent of the population, women continue to lack access to political leadership opportunities and resources at all levels of government. Women’s equal participation in decision-making is not only a demand for simple justice or democracy, but a necessary pre-condition for women’s interests to be taken into account. Governance structures which do not result in the equal participation of men and women, or their equal enjoyment of benefits from state interventions are by definition neither inclusive nor democratic. Recognizing that over the last century women’s gains in the political arena in India has been slow and inadequate & realizing the fact that political parties formulate policy and set governance priorities and are therefore strategically placed to address the concerns of women -- the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) sought to make women’s political participation one of its foremost priorities. As AAP fundamentally ...

Eternally grateful to you Adv. Sonak The living owe it to those who no longer can speak to tell their story for them  -- Czeslaw Milosz (The Issa Valley) S ometimes a single meeting can change the course of one's life. For me, my encounter with Adv. Satish Sonak, in the May of 2005, was such a meeting. Some people had come together at Azad Maidan in Panaji to discuss current issues afflicting the State -- from politics to environment to issues of governance and policy decisions. I was a working journalist then and out of curosity slowly slipped into the gathering wanting to know what was in it for me. I heard many of those gathered speak -- sharing their impressions, discussing and debating without end.  Then I saw a man in his 40s. His voice was rather hoarse, but he gave the impression of being completely at ease. At first, I couldn't grasp what he was talking about, but then he made penetrating comments on different topics, from the burning questions of daily life ...

In Goa, AAP is "work in progress"   O n that afternoon of May 22, 2016, some 14,000 people from different walks of life descended on the Campal ground, near Panaji, to hear Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) national convener & Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal (AK) put forward a bold alternative to conventional politics -- his first meeting in Goa ever since AAP Goa unit started in 2012, soon after its launch in the national capital with the promise of a difference -- of ringing in an era of alternative politics. T o recall, AAP was formed on November 26, 2012 to bring honesty and transparency in politics-- stuff people had stopped believing politicians possessed. A key point of AAP's vision said: "Politics itself is not a dirty word - it is our current breed of politicians who have made it dirty. AAP wants to make politics a noble calling once again." This vision helped him put together a formidable crew of non-political people promising a fresh ...