Page 19 - Infocus 4 January 2018 _Neat

Economic

Employment-related concerns The Role of the Church
Concerns are being raised about how the The Church is always a factor in Goan
Government’s decision to bring in Akshaya sociopolitics, which is not surprising
Patra will result in unemployment for considering that Christians constitute 26%
hundreds of people. This is fuelled by the of the population share. In 2012, its open
belief that the organisation will bring in its support to the BJP-led alliance helped them
own staff. An article published in The Goan get a majority. At present, there are 17
said, “The fine print of the proposal clearly Christian MLAs in the 40 member assembly;
states that the existing Self-Help Groups, 7 BJP, 9 Congress, and 1 NCP. Almost all
cooks/helpers and other staff should be the local publications are highlighting that
On What Grounds Will the Government Replace SHGs? absorbed by the government in alternate jobs Akshaya Patra’s parent organisation is
On what grounds does the Government intend to replace SHGs with Akshaya and that the Foundation will bring in their own ISKCON. Even the Church will highlight
Patra? This is the first question that everyone seems to be interested in. There have staff.” the same when opposing Akshaya Patra; Fr.
been a few untoward incidents as well as some instances of SHGs being asked to Maverick has already gone public with this
discontinue their services as they didn’t follow the stipulated guidelines. On Sep- So the question is - will Akshaya Patra create issue.
tember 4, for instance, the Goa Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) department employment opportunities for the locals? Even
ordered closure of a kitchen run by a Valpoi-based SHG as its premises were found if we say that our policy revolves around hiring Quality of Food Provided by SHGs
to be unhygienic. However, in such cases, the blame is on the individual SHG and locals—we do not bring staff from outside, Those people who have tasted the food
not the whole lot. Even the SHGs argue that in such cases the guilty SHG should be the question is whether we will be able to provided have mixed reviews about the
replaced with a new one instead of reviewing the entire network. accommodate the number of people involved quality; taste in particular. Some SHGs
There have been no major incidents. SHGs are voluntarily coming forward for now in 105 SHGs across the state as of now. provide tasty food, while some provide food
checks. They are asking the headmasters and PTA members to taste the food. The How do we say we operate fully automated for the sake of it.
Government wants schools to go and check their facilities and they don’t have any kitchen unit and still make a case for manual
problem with that. labour? What will Akshaya Patra serve?
Children don’t seem to be fond of food
Arguments by SHGs and/or their supporters SUMUL Example they get as a part of MDM as of now, which
Instead of spending 12 crore on infrastructure, why not increase the funds pro- is understandable as most of them don’t
vided to us so that we can provide a better meal? A suggestion was to map the presence of face hunger to the extent like children in
We have been providing meals for more than a decade. If we were not up to the the existing 105 SHGs and see if they are other states. These children—if they do skip
mark, why didn’t the Government spend this money on training us to improve our concentrated in urban areas or distributed breakfast—it is by choice. The only food
service? across the states. If they are concentrated in item that everyone seems to like is
Why is the Government not thinking about the hundreds of families that will be urban areas, we can start off with the rural bhaji-pav which is usually the breakfast in
affected by this decision? parts where they are not dominant. A similar Goa. These children don’t even like pulav as
Why bring an organisation from outside when you can replace the guilty SHG solution was used when Gujarat-based Surat they are not used to the idea of having rice
with another local SHG? District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union at 11:00.
In Goa, the cost of living is high. The Government should revise the price paid per (SUMUL) was allowed entry in Goa last year.
meal after taking this into consideration and we will be able to provide better food. In the aftermath of protests, it was allowed to That prompts the question what will
start its operations in the four interior talukas. Akshaya Patra provide? How will the menu
SHGs contract was set to expire in September 2017. On 04/09/17, the Government be different from what the existing SHGs
of Goa extended their contract with SHGs until the end of this academic year. Social are providing? This is important because if
children don’t like it, they won’t eat. Also,
Goan-Outsider Issue taking into account the school timing, it
The Goan-outsider issue will also come to seems like they will prefer snacks instead of
the fore in this case. As mentioned earlier, a proper lunch.
at least one publication has mentioned that
Akshaya Patra will bring its own staff from
outside. It is important that we deal with such
misinformation by getting relevant articles
published in local media.

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