Civil society group to form task force to address poverty in Goa

Focus on making livelihood central theme of development

Over 20 experts, who were part of a round table organised by an NGO on Thursday, decided to form a task force to prepare a roadmap for the State government and create an enabling environment to address issues of livelihood and poverty.

Charudutta Panigrahi, mentor at Forum for Integrated Development and Research, said, “This round table brings together the intelligentsia, policy makers, implementers, experts from business, governments and development practitioners to explore the dynamics in livelihood and economic growth of Goa.”

The experts included former MLA and Goa EDC chairman Sidharth Kucolinkar, MAIT president Nitin Kukolikar, Advocate Yatish Naik, senior journalist Shashwat Gupta Ray, Sangita Naik of Goa IT Professionals, Soter D’suza of the local self governance movement, Monoj Parab of Revolutionary Goa, and president of DRAG Avelino de Sa.

Issues addressed at the round table included data gaps and institutional capacities to make livelihood the central theme of development for future generations. The focus of the meet was to strengthen analytical and institutional capacities to design and implement pro-poor State development strategies. It was also decided to bring about policies in line with sustainable development goals, encouraging gender empowerment and equity in distribution of benefits of growth.

The experts felt that in the wake of stagnating and decelerating growth in significant sectors like tourism and mining, there is a need to design interventions to help communities access alternative sources of livelihoods such as IT without compromising the inherent skills and resources of the State’s youth.

Mr. Panigrahi said, “The group was concerned about the issue of people migrating in search of a better life, which has been rising steadily in Goa. Some of the ideas shared included initiatives to reduce the rapid migration from rural areas, develop employment strategies and build local capacities.”

Siddhartha Behera, director, FIDR, emphasised on the need for a ‘one stop shop forum’ for the State to take forward the livelihood discourse with due representation from the communities.