PANAJI
Despite living in the State for more than 16 years, which makes them eligible for domicile, they are still considered as migrant.
The study titled ‘Walking the Tightrope’ was released by North Goa Collector Nila Mohanan and conducted by a consortium of NGOs including Caritas Goa, Centre for Responsible Tourism, Children’s Rights in Goa, Equations, Bangalore, Jan Ugahi Trust and Vikas Samvad as part of a larger project on sexual exploitation of Children in travel and tourism as well as work on reducing violence against children with special focus on sexual exploitation of children and child sex tourism.
The study interviewed 658 families across 14 slums both in North and South Goa and the results were startling
The study found that 31% of the children of migrant families work of which 53% are directly involved in the unorganised tourism sector. Among the 31% who are working 34% are also studying while the rest have dropped out of schools.
Among the students who are both studying and working, 53% work three to four hours a day while another 20% work between five to 12 hours a day.
Only 3% of the total number of children interviewed had completed Std X while 27% had never enrolled in any school. The situation was no different for their families. 30% of the migrant labour in the State is involved in tourism related occupations of which 30% are women working in the coastal area in shops and hotels.
In the tourism industry 82% do not earn a salary commensurate with the minimum wage and instead are paid daily wages which are below the minimum wage for unskilled labour.
38% draw a monthly family income below `5,000 a month while 48% earn between `6,000 to `10,000 per month.
The question of the State populace preparedness to tackle the problem was also analysed but 58% children, 52% of the tourism industry and 70% tourists interviewed had no information when asked whom they would contact when they see a child in distress.
This despite around 31% of the tourism industry professionals having witnessed domestic tourists exploiting children.
The NGOs led by Caritas Goa have called for further enquiry into the status of migrant people as well as to review and amend the current legislation to ensure protection of the rights and interest of migrant people.
“The Department of Women and Child Development in collaboration with the Department of Tourism should develop a “State plan of action to counter child exploitation in tourism in Goa.”
Goa has a significant number of migrant population living in the State with the census placing the figure at 27% of the total population. A significant number of migrant people are from Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal as well as the North East and Nepal.
