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.
