How The Pandemic Has Helped Migrant Population In Goa

 

As the pandemic has found so many ways of humanity to thrive and survive, migrant workers are also finding great dignity in labour and purpose in work for themselves

One of the ponds that has been resurrected through the effort of the migrant population and the NGO CatcH20 Group in Goa

Migrant population has been worst effected by the pandemic led lock-downs. It has sucked into their livelihood and threatened their very existence. Many countries have been held up for human rights violation, when it came to helping and taking care of their migrant labour. The ugly truth of their lives came out in the open.

India was a sad case of neglect. Actually, there were just too many to look after and with lack of proper documentation of the migrant workers nationwide, it became a difficult task to consolidate them and help them in a systematic way. 

But the Goan administration under the aegis of an able CM Pramod Sawant, there have been many good moves made to protect the rights of the migrant workers. He has taken concrete steps to create a database of information for the migrant population, which comprises a huge workforce for the Goan travel and tourism industry on the whole. 

Recently, the Goan administration has started to engage migrant workers into cleaning up their dying ponds. Goa is famous for having a pond in every village. Its a place where buffaloes can be seen wallowing and enjoying themselves in the summer heat. 

A single artist's determination has led to cleaning up of pond bodies in Goan villages. She has employed daily wage migrant workers who are willing to step into water and clean the ponds. These migrants since April 2020, have found work of such proportions, but they are happy. 

The ones from North part of India, are seeing merit in the work and gathering courage to move around water bodies. Most from Uttar Pradesh dont know how to swim. Under the aegis of the organisation called CatcH20, the group has so far, cleaned five water bodies – three wells and two ponds. Eight more ponds have been identified for cleaning in the next phase.

The first phase's work started on May 1 as a pilot phase which lasted until June 15. During this time they cleaned the Grandmorod pond in Saligao after which they moved on to identifying other water bodies. A pond in the nearby Pilerne village was cleaned.  The pandemic in many ways has helped people to go back to their roots- work towards resurrecting their water bodies, taking care of their own ecosystem. 

There are many beneficiaries that have joined hands with the cause and have helped the migrant population into learning news skills. The level of desperation has gone down, helping them earn some decent money as well. Not to mention that the government itself has been supporting the cause itself.