---------------------------------------------------------- Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/goa-net/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Goanet2003/ ----------------------------------------------------------
Goa faces new wave of inmigration from Karnataka drought areas >From Devika Sequeira DH News Service PANAJI, Jan 22 They have grown from a negligible minority in the '70s, to the third largest linguistic majority (after Konkani and Marathi) in Goa. Estimates by the Kannada Parishad here suggest the presence of 3.5 lakh (over 25 per cent of the state's population) Kannadigas in Goa. Their impact on Goa's political, social and cultural milieu can no longer be ignored, say Kannadigas living here. "There are constituencies in Goa, where candidates are dependent on the Kannadiga vote to get elected," points out the Goa Kannada Parishad president D M Ashrit. In Mormugao, Vasco, Cortalim, Navelim, Ponda and Aldona, pockets of Kannadiga settlers were furiously wooed in the 2002 assembly election. The Congress had Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna fly down twice to address a series of meetings in these areas, and BJP chief Venkaiah Naidu met personally with Kannadiga community leaders to solicit support. What began as a trickle of white-collared migration from across the borders, to fill in positions in the state government after Goa's Liberation, has today grown to a swell of migrant labour, drawn by the real estate boom. "Migration for government posts was at its peak between 1961 to 1982," says Ashrit, who himself arrived here in 1961, and retired from the state's irrigation department. "We were filling in for Goa's need for engineers, chartered accountants and grain merchants," recalls H L Kulkarni. Attached to the state's Industrial Development Corporation, he has lived here for 31 years. The profile of the Kannadiga immigrant has however seen a dramatic turnaround in recent years. With few jobs available in the upmarket category, the inflow has served to fill in the low-end jobs of waiters, vegetable vendors and at construction sites. What many here find disturbing though, is the recent swarm of inmigration spurred by drought in the Bijapur district. "We have seen hundreds of them coming in from Ranivennur and Haveri, and wandering around in Calangute and other development areas," says Ashrit. The fact that 60 per cent of the Kannadiga labour is on its own (unattached to labour contractors) makes them vulnerable to exploitation, both by contractors and the police, he says. The Kannada sanghas here are now in serious discussion over organising Karnataka-origin labour, and are planning a conference here later this year to thrash out the issue. "Unless we organise this sector, they could become a serious problem," he says./ends -------------------------------------------------------
