The other Goa

PASSENGERS ALIGHTING FROM a ferry. When competing for jobs at the all-India level, Goan youth fare poorly. Their survival continues to depend on agriculture and traditional occupations. - SUSHANT S. NAIK

The real Goa is far removed from the Goa of the tourism brochure. It is the dark side of an education and development process going awry.

NESTLED amidst emerald fields and surrounded by low hills covered in dense foliage and a light mist, Barceim village in Quepem taluk is far removed from the Goa one sees in tourism brochures. Still rooted in the ancient traditions of the Velip, an indigenous tribal group of the State, this village perhaps symbolises the struggles of the people, particularly the youth, living in Goa's hinterland.

It is the dark side of the Goan story, the story of an education and development process going awry, particularly in the rural areas. An 82 per cent literacy rate and the second highest per capita income in the country cannot hide the excessive rate of failure in school examinations, the high dropout rate in schools, the low enrolment in higher education, and frustrating rural unemployment.

In Barceim, one of the pressing issues is unemployment. The women say that money spent on educating children has not brought any tangible benefits. The youth blame this on the sudden switch to English in middle school. Their inability to express themselves fluently in English has affected their self-confidence and undermined their chances in jobs outside the State.

Govind Vilip, a teacher in Barceim, says most of the children are first-generation learners. Many of them fail in English and drop out by the time they reach class X. Although they do not want to work as farmers, and aspire for government jobs, they have no option but to work on the family land, which offers diminishing returns.

Barceim is not an isolated experience. The language issue, the limitations of the education system, and the absence of a vision in the State's development process have far-reaching consequences for Goa's youth. "Literacy is not just about getting a secondary school certificate. We do not see a corresponding rise in higher levels of education, awareness, ability to fight for one's rights, or a knowledge and skills base," says Ramesh Gauns, a teacher in Bicholim taluk in North Goa district.

Government and non-government agencies have failed to reach out to youth in the 15-25 age-group, particularly in the rural and under-developed areas, where many youth are dropping out of high school and joining the ranks of the frustrated unemployed. Some of them have become lumpen elements and others are coming under the influence of fundamentalist organisations or turning to alcohol.

The education system fails to keep children engaged. It emphasises the use of an Indian language - either Konkani or Marathi - at the primary level, up to class IV. A sudden transition to English thereafter creates problems of adjustment for the rural youth.

Konkani is the spoken language of communication, but Marathi is a medium of instruction in schools. The Marathi language has dominated primary education since Goa's liberation. Even after Konkani was declared the official language, its support base in schools was restricted mainly to Christians and the Saraswat community among Hindus. The wider mass of Hindus preferred to read and write in Marathi but now hanker after English as the medium of instruction and the means of upward mobility.

While recent months have seen politicians trying to whip up communal passions over the script to be used for the Konkani language - Devanagari or Roman - the educated elite of Goan society has stayed out of the controversy.

According to Gauns, the government recently tried to evaluate the impact of the education system on the youth. As a member of a government-appointed committee to examine the reasons for the closure of primary schools, he found that 110 schools had closed because they had no pupils.

In the past two years, 2,325 primary schoolteachers were thrown out of jobs. The thrust of education is now on English as the medium of instruction, he says.

Although Konkani is spoken widely, Konkani-medium government primary schools are fewer than the Kannada medium schools catering to the migrant community from Karnataka, says Fr. Naik, director of The Thomas Stephens Konkani Institute.

"Not a single student has enrolled to learn Konkani at our institute," says Fr. Naik. "People are not interested in learning Konkani. It is no one's language, though it will remain at the popular level, orally. Everyone is interested in learning Portuguese and English. Use of these languages enables people to hide their caste identity and sense of inferiority. It is a socio-linguistic problem," he says.

Gauns' analysis of official data reveals that only 29 per cent of those who enrolled in primary school pursue higher education. This dropout takes place in two stages - in Class VIII, when the education system starts gearing up for the board examinations, and then again at Class X, when students move to junior colleges.

Says Gauns: "The dropout rate since 2000 has been 40 per cent in class X, and it has never gone below that thereafter. Where are these youth, especially in the backward districts, going after dropping out? This is a time when many forces are entering Goa bringing information technology (IT) and new ideas of career and management. Goan society is engaged at a preliminary level of economic activity to satisfy basic needs. The education system has not opened the perspective of youth to the wider opportunities that are opening up."

Sandesh Prabhudesai, editor of the Konkani newspaper Sunaparat, says agriculture no longer provides a means of economic survival for the youth. Inadequate attention to productivity and the division of property amongst a larger number of family members have made agriculture unviable. Families live with a constant cash crunch, and this has made them sell land farmland for a song to feed the ever-growing demands of the construction boom.

"Vast tracts of fields are left uncultivated in villages, while our youth run after white collar jobs. Proper production and a marketing network in agriculture could solve many problems the State is facing," says Prabhudesai.

A group of Goa-based non-governmental organisations (NGOs) has questioned the government's bid to create an IT park for which the State has acquired six lakh square metres of Communidade-controlled forest land. (The Communidade system, which is based on the traditions instituted by Goa's indigenous communities, ensures that common village land cannot be sold off by individuals. This system has been severely attacked and weakened by Portuguese rule, upper-caste landlords and politicians, but it still works to protect communities such as those in Barceim. Everyone has access to the land, where they can grow food.)

The NGOs say Goa's youth are in no position to benefit from the IT park. The State does not have even 600 IT professionals. When competing for jobs at an all-India level, Goan youth fare poorly. Their survival continues to depend on agriculture and traditional occupations. The boom in tourism and construction has largely benefited those from outside the State.

The Goan aspiration for secure government jobs has also been dashed because this sector is saturated. Many educated Goan youth now drive taxis for a living or find jobs in the Gulf or in the shipping industry. In the rural areas, many frustrated and unemployed, landless youth join the army of local politicians, become lumpen elements involved in highway extortions, or become alcoholics, says Prabhudesai. Drinking is a big problem in the villages. The increase in the number of bars across Goa, which are at every street corner and remain open throughout the day, is evident even in remote villages, he says.

The neglect of Goa's youth by secular agencies has left the field wide open to communal elements. In early 2006, there were serious communal disturbances in the towns of Curchorem (Quepem taluk) and Sanvordem (Sanguem taluk) in south Goa. Independent investigations blamed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for instigating the riots.

A workshop on communalism, organised by Peaceful Society, a Gandhian voluntary organisation, at Madkai in Ponda taluk brought out parents' dilemma of how to cope with the powerful social forces influencing children.

Participants spoke of the Goan identity, which has been projected as being synonymous with Christians and restricted to the coastal tourism belt. It does not encapsulate the life of the majority and other groups living in the interior districts. While Goan communities have had little interaction among themselves in the past, the absence of secular platforms on which they can come together has made the society insular and unable to address the real issues of education, health and livelihood.

"Many in Goa do not know that people live in acute misery in the interior areas," says Kalanand Mani, secretary of Peaceful Society. A study of households in five panchayats of Madkai revealed improper housing; poor access to education, drinking water and nutrition; and a high unemployment rate, he says. The absence of comprehensive health services still result in undetected cases of tuberculosis, he adds.

While Goa boasts a literacy rate of 82.3 per cent (all-India average 65.4 per cent), many taluks in south Goa, such as Quepem and Canacona, have literacy rates that fall below the State average. Apart from rural-urban differences, Goa's literacy rate also highlights gender differences. Data mined from the recent Economic Survey of Goa speak of a skewed sex ratio, a heavy burden of crimes against women, neglect of women's health owing to poor access to health care, and poor nutrition status of women, which is influenced by the high cost of living.

The mental health of Goan youth has also come under strain. A study by Sangath Society, a Goa-based NGO working on mental health issues, showed a high rate of mental illness and suicide among the youth. This is supported by data from the `Statistical Abstract, India, 2002, Government of India', which is based on police records and shows a high suicide rate in the 15 to 44 age group. The causes for suicide relate primarily to illness, family problems, unemployment and failed love affairs.

There is no agency, either among NGOs or in the government, that is reaching out effectively to the youth and addressing their needs or clarifying the root causes of social disturbance. The Yuva Mitra project that Sangath launched recently is making an attempt through its adolescent health education programme, which focuses on education and career counselling, and reproductive and mental health issues. But intervention projects such as these have yet to figure out innovative ways in which they can find acceptance within urban communities or meet the pressing needs of rural youth.

Compounding the problems of the youth is the culture of consumerism. The demand for branded, expensive goods is creating enormous pressure within families, forcing women to work harder and bear more burden. Unable to offer their children the love and support they need, parents seek to indulge them.

This, in turn, puts pressure on other children whose parents are poorer. Instead of investing in their future through skills and a knowledge base, Goan youth see little value in higher education and are becoming accustomed to a culture of easy money, particularly in the coastal areas, where rental or sale of ancestral property has made life cushy for them.

Psychiatrists and counsellors are perhaps among the few people who are in direct contact with the more serious cases of distressed youth and have an insight into their needs. Dr. Belinda Viegas Muller says she gets patients from all over Goa and is worried by the rising trend of disturbed children coming her clinic at Varca in Salcete taluk in south Goa. Some of these children are as young as five years old and demonstrate classic symptoms of depression and stress, she says.

"The present system of education is destroying the self-esteem of children and the human resource potential of Goa," says Dr. Muller. "The lack of interpersonal skills is hampering youth at every level - education, career or family life."

The pressure imposed by an unbalanced and unhealthy school curriculum and the students' inability to cope or feel interest in their work is creating in them a sense of "total failure", Dr. Muller says. "It affects children from both the high and low income strata - the `haves' are under enormous pressure to study, the `have nots' face no pressure and no one cares for them. Both end up as dropouts and suffer from depression," she says.

"If this does not change, Goa will go through very difficult times. I am shocked by the suffering I see in schools. I am frightened by the cases of depression that are being referred to me by schoolteachers," Dr. Muller emphasises.

Asserting that research organisations need to study the mental health problems of Goan youth and show how the present education system is destroying their future, she says, "Research must force the pace of change. It is the only way the government will pay attention."