Author: Amita Kanekar

By AMITA KANEKAR

The recent news that bonded labourers were working on the infamous double tracking project of the Indian Railways through the Mollem forests should cause no surprise. The labourers were rescued from their abusive situation only because of complaints made by ARZ, a Goa-based NGO, and the efforts of an Adivasi organisation in Telangana. The Indian Railways now claim that the labourers were not bonded at all, but ‘only’ underpaid and ill-treated by their contractor. According to the workers themselves, the oldest of whom was a 72-year-old woman, they were paid less than minimum wages, were prevented from leaving and going home, and were forced to live right next to the tracks, without adequate shelter (in the monsoon) and without toilets either. (more…)

Por AMITA KANEKAR

O templo goês está a desaparecer a passos largos ao ser substituído por formas arquitetónicas de outras partes da Índia.

Ler Mais.

By AMITA KANEKAR

The new Union Education Minister is expressly charged – so we are told – with the fast-tracking of the New Education Policy (NEP). A new approach to education is actually something that this country needs desperately, given the huge failings of India’s Brahmanical education system, like the continuing lack of universal access to education, and the stratified system of education quality, which ensures that a child from a disadvantaged background remains disadvantaged in education too. But will this NEP make any difference? As has been discussed in this column earlier, this NEP is actually hardly new at all, for, like earlier such policies, it ignores or brushes over all the fundamental problems of the education system. All of which have been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic, as we shall see below. (more…)

By AMITA KANEKAR

Goa’s government finds itself the butt of almost constant ridicule nowadays. From the widely-appreciated twitter-thrashing of Mauvin Godinho by Tamil Nadu’s Finance Minister P. Thiagarajan, revealing, among other things, the former’s anti-people support for GST on COVID19 drugs and vaccines; to the surrealistic declaration that the government wants to forest areas in Madhya Pradesh to compensate for forests destroyed in Goa; and the unbelievable announcement that Goa is a top performer in the Niti Aayog’s Sustainability Development Goals’ (SDG) ratings, every bit of news about this Sawant-led government gets greeted with disbelief, scorn, jokes, and memes, not to mention hashtags like #PramodSawantMustGo. (more…)

By AMITA KANEKAR

As Goans deal with the chaos, despair, and complete absence of governance of the present moment, a question comes to mind: what is the government for? (more…)

By AMITA KANEKAR

The Regulamento das Mazanias, translated as Devasthan Regulation 1933, which regulates the functioning of more than 200 prominent Hindu temples in Goa, is in the news nowadays. A public interest petition has been filed against this law for violating Article 15 of the Constitution by allowing only males to become members of the mazania (the body of mahajans), i.e. administrators of the temples that fall within the purview of the Act. This gender issue is the nub of the petition filed by law student Shukr Sinai Usgaokar, who also quotes Vivekananda about how a nation would not march forward if the women are left behind. (more…)

By AMITA KANEKAR

One more Women’s Day goes by, marked by the usual greetings from politicians, commercial hoopla, and celebrations of Indian women, especially ‘successful’ ones. All of this, when compared to the fact that India ranks among the worst countries in which to be born a woman, looks like schizophrenia. But it’s not. It’s just caste, which means one thing for you and another for me. (more…)