Her smile and her softvoice won’t give you the least idea of the strength that lieswithin. But Kajal Kerkar is a strong willed individual, a part of ateam of people that changed the way Ponda approached the LegislativeElections and the MoI issue. She has galvanised the youth of Pondaand got them to stand up and use their voices.
An executive member ofKonkani Bhasha Mandal, Kajal is currently doing a PhD in sociologyafter having done her primary education in Konkani. Kajal says, “Sometime back, the university had objected students to see their answersheets being verified in front of them. I observed how my seniorsopposed this issue. They also taught me to have complete knowledge ofan issue before taking a stand on it. MoI was the first issue thatsaw the youth of Goa come on to streets for a cause. Before the MoIissue, the youth was always criticised for being self-centric andinsensitive towards social issues. We got the youth together andstarted the movement in support of primary education being given ineither Konkani or Marathi. During the movement we realised that manypeople don’t know the depth of the issue. They don’t realise thatthe issue is about primary education and we aren’t against learningEnglish but against children getting their primary education in aforeign language instead of our mother tongue. Now by giving grantsto 127 English-medium schools, the government has provoked us and themovement is coming back to action. This time, we are working on legalterms instead of coming out on streets and utilising our energy.”
Although it may seem‘cool’ to be a part of youth movements, the actual participationcomes with numerous challenges. As per Kajal, sometimes there aremisunderstandings within the group. But since social actions don’tcome with the liberty of time to think, members have to planimpromptu and act. Also, the expenses involved in the agitation haveto be borne by individuals in the absence of sponsors. Kajal adds,“Because of my involvement in the voting campaign, I was late on myassignment submissions. At times, even my family opposes myparticipation in these agitations but we have to balance our familylife, our career and these activities. It is difficult but it isessential.”
Kajal is not new to thelife of activism. She took an active part in the India AgainstCorruption movement and worked with her group to educate the youth ofPonda about the power of their vote. They held rallies, meetings incolleges and villages and willed the people to get out, cast theirvote and have a say in the way their government functions. Now, she’slooking on towards new things.
