PANAJI
The number of canonical marriages (church marriages) registered in talukas considered Catholic-dominated is significantly lower than those of non-canonical marriages with figures pointing to changing demographics in the ‘old conquests’. Case in point, in Salcete of the 1940 marriages registered in the year 2016, only 766 were canonical marriages while a majority 1174 were non-canonical marriages. In Bardez and Tiswadi the percentages of canonical marriages is even lesser.
In Bardez, 1698 were non-canonical marriages to 308 canonical while in Tiswadi, there were 1053 non-canonical marriages to 208 canonical.
Fr Victor Ferrão, professor at Rachol Seminary voices the concern of the church regarding the demographic deficit of the Catholic population in Goa.
“The number of marriages appear to be significantly low in the old conquest areas like Salcete (which included Mormugao too). But today the demography has definitely changed. On the other hand the new conquest talukas continue to show lesser number of Christians,” Fr Ferrão said.
“Bardez had never been a fully Christian bastion as conversions did not take place on a mass scale here. Fewer got converted here and most migrated to neighbouring areas like Mangalore, Kerala and Karwar. The reason of lesser number of marriages in Tiswadi areas like Agassaim, Goa Velha and Siridao can be attributed to the migration of youth to UK and France. There are hardly any youth left in these areas,” he added.
He also suggested that talukas like Salcete, Tiswadi and Bardez being urban were witness to large scale immigration not just from out of the State but also within the state.
“Firstly, the number of Christian families living in Salcete has decreased over the years. Due to urbanisation people from the remote parts of South Goa have settled in Salcete for educational and employment purposes,” he said.
With around 15 lakh population, less than half of which is married, the year 2016 witnessed a total of 11,212 marriages in Goa that were registered with the Registrar of Marriages under Civil and Canonical categories in all of 12 taluka across the State.
“Out of these 9420 were Civil while 1792 were canonical or church marriages. The district of Bardez witnessed the largest number of Civil marriages (1681) followed by Ponda (1267), Salcete (1174) and Tiswadi (1053). The district of Salcete saw the largest number of canonical marriages, 766 while Sattari had a single church marriage,” explains P S S Bodke, Registrar of Marriages, Office of State Registrar-cum-head of Notary Services at
Shrama Shakti Bhavan in Patto-Panaji.
In a state where Hinduism is majority religion with 66.08 per cent followers, Christianity has 25.10 per cent of the population following it.
The practice of surrendering Indian citizenship to obtain Portuguese passports for migration purposes to countries including UK and Portugal can also contribute to the fall in the number of marriages, as those who have permanently settled abroad may prefer to get married there instead of having the celebrations in Goa.
