If there was ever an example of how xenophobia can make humans hurt one another in Goa, it would be the blatant discrimination meted out to members of the Wanarmare tribe in Nirankal, Ponda. Huts were broken down and burned; threats were made to the residing women and children, since the men were out working in the fields. Members of the local village, along with a few elected representatives, have demanded that these tribes be refused land and sent away from the area.
What the Wanarmare tribe is doing isn’t exactly legal, but sometimes there are shades of grey in these situations. The fact is, the tribe has been a nomadic one for decades, centuries perhaps. A few decades ago, following the example of other groups in their extended tribe, a small community of Wanarmare members settled down in Nirankal. They would live there for most of the year, only moving elsewhere for work for some months.
Now they seem to have put down roots. Out of the 40 Wanarmare children, over half attend local schools and anganwadis. All members have cards under the National Food Security Act and many have Aadhar cards too. They are now officially part of Goa. All they do not have is a permanent place to lay their heads. They have jobs, working in the fields and on sugarcane plantations owned by prominent members of local society. But no one, apart from a handful of local residents, is fighting to give these men, women and children a home.
This certainly reflects on us as a society. These are tribals, people who do not know what it is like to live in a home, to have a permanent job or to even read or write. But do we punish them for that? Do we call them thieves and beggars simply because they do not conform to ‘high’ standards that we have now set? It would appear so, judging by the fact that a large group of villagers want the Wanarmare out of their village due to ‘unacceptable’ habits and behaviour. Apparently, breaking down huts and burning them is an ‘acceptable’ habit. Locals call them thugs and thieves, yet when it came down to it, it was the locals who acted like thugs.
They are called the Wanarmare (or Makadmare) because they were initially known for hunting and killing monkeys. The tables have now turned it would seem. Instead of working to rehabilitate the less fortunate into society, a society that they have lived in and worked for a few decades, they are being hounded out like animals. It’s a shame that that we have come to that. It’s really unacceptable.
