INCLUSIVE EDUCATION FOR CHILDREN, PLEASE: The Goa State Commission for Protection of Child Rights reviewed inclusive education for children on April 4, 2023 at a meeting held at the Secretariat Hall, Porvorim. In an effort to streamline and strengthen inclusive education the GSI brought together Directorate of Education, District Early Intervention Centres (North Goa & South Goa), Institute for Psychiatry and Human Behaviour, Goa Medical College, State Family Welfare Bureau, Directorate of Social Welfare, Office of the State Commissioner for Disabilities and Sangath on a common platform. Speaking in his opening remarks Chairperson Peter F. Borges called for significant investment, proactive and innovative thinking, and putting a policy framework that will endure across government. He said students with disabilities deserve the same access to a local school as all their peers. Full inclusion is possible with the right funding and creating enabling environment. The commission came up with a host of recommendations to be adopted and executed along a timeline framework. On the cards is Educational Monitoring Information System for children with disabilities, concentrated early intervention drive in collaboration through Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK), DoE to conduct access audit and ensure barrier-free environments, Directorate of Education to conduct capacity building programmes, issuing of circular to schools to initiate disability certification at DEICs in elementary section at the age of 8 onwards, enforcing non-negotiable principles, enhancement of human resources and infrastructure, also the establishment of more DEIC satellite centers at selected PHCs.

NATION AT CROSSROADS

WE should all be very concerned about where our country is headed. The current patriotism-fuelled blindness is building up a force which is anti-Constitution of India. Our Constitution is about guaranteeing every citizen equality, justice and a fair playing field regardless of caste, creed or religion.
However, narrowing loyalties can turn into communal outbreaks of violence which over time damage unity and all round development of the country or nation. Some people are forced to resort to undemocratic and fascist ways to achieve hidden goals. Communalism is a far greater evil posing a threat to the nation, more so than even corruption.
What is cause for more anguish is that a devious coterie of so-called champions of patriotism is slowly spreading poison in the minds of the silent majority of the majority community, this is only dragging our country backwards. The uncalled for vicious tirade even against writers, thinkers and journalists and the brazen suppression of the media, with the ruling party shedding crocodile tears, does not augur well for the very survival of our democracy.
There is a desperate need for unity among all political and secular forces who believe in our Constitution, in equality and freedom. Let the nation wake up to an old warning by Edmund Burke “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
—Aires Rodrigues, Ribandar

PUNISHMENT FOR ILLEGALITIES?
REVENUE Minister Atanasio Babush Monserrate has introduced the landmark Goa Restriction on Transfer of Agricultural Land Bill, 2023 in the Legislative Assembly, which seeks to impose strict restrictions on the transfer of certain agricultural lands and stop non-Goans from purchasing these lands so as to preserve/protect them – these lands are currently being used for cultivation of paddy in the state.
Such a bill is the need of the hour because most Goans over the years have got into the habit of converting their ancestral paddy fields into commercial plots, by slowly filling them up with rubble-cum-mud to sell them to non-Goans for monetary gains. They also casually allow migrating people to set up their own small tea stalls, restaurants, ice-cream parlours, hardware shops, vegetable shops, chicken/mutton shops, garages, scrap-yards, etc, illegally in the fields in most parts of Goa.
Some Goans have constructed a number of houses and huge multi-storey buildings consisting of 50-100 rooms in such agricultural fields to rent them to migrants working in different factories/industrial estates – so that they may enjoy their own permanent “ache din” in Goa.
In the light of all these which is damaging Goa’s original green landscapes I feel the government should come out with a bill to punish Goans for such casual selling of their fields and losing them for construction activity of varied kind. The plots soon become permanent properties and the fields are just memories.
All such illegally converted paddy fields which have gone into non-Goan land sharks should be taken back and the culprits punished severely. Or there will be no Goa of old left for Goans for migrants will have turned Goa into ugly high-rise slum land tenements as they have done elsewhere.
—Jerry Fernandes, Saligao

GOA BEACHSIDE SUMMIT
THE second edition of the Goa Beachside Summit saw overwhelming response from industry experts and think tank leaders from India. This summit is Asia’s only marketing summit and it concluded at the Bambolim Beach Resort in Goa. It brought together over 100 participants who were exposed to topics and insights from some of the country’s best marketing pundits, namely Sorav Jain, Digital Deepak, Rishi Jain, Sandeep Bhansali, Ayushi Mathur, Ronsley Vaz, Jayant Kumar, Medha Gurbaxani, Rashi Goel, Sandhya Kanakaraju, Nina Punjabi, and Saranya Vinoth.
The summit envisioned a “Do it Now Implementation” to help participants implement their marketing plans with expert tips from the gurus in the business. All aspects of marketing were covered from new-age marketing tools and holistic marketing plans covering branding, PR, social media, company growth hacks, podcasting, email marketing, metrics that matter, AI tools, and more.
it is hoped many more such events will come up in the near future in Goa.
—Mahima Shetkar, Goa