“As an outsider you must be thinking Goa is so modern, so free, so happy, right? But have you spoken to us Goan women?” said Anami Harmalkar, a 48-year-old single mother of two who lives in Anjuna.

In political hoardings and poll promises by parties, the focus on women is clear ahead of the assembly elections this year. Goa, after all, is among 13 states and union territories with more women voters than men﹘with 52 percent of the electorate consisting of women as per 2019 figures.

While several parties are eyeing votes through promises of financial assistance, many voters such as Anami told Newslaundry that it is difficult to avail the benefits of such schemes, and these barely address the issue of their empowerment. All women candidates we spoke to agreed that the issue of violence against women should feature too in campaigns in the state﹘where the rape rate at 7.8 percent is higher than the national figure of 4.6 and where 66 percent of rape survivors were minors in 2020.

With 12 parties in the fray and 27 women among the total 301 candidates, some also expressed concern over representation of women; 19 women contested the polls last time and two of them joined the 40-member assembly.

Let’s look at the election promise of financial assistance and if women voters feel understood by parties.

Cash assistance

The Griha Aadhar Scheme launched by the BJP government provides Rs 1,500 per month to any married woman if her annual income is less than Rs 3 lakh. The party, which is contesting all 40 seats, has not made new promises but is promoting its financial assistance schemes like the Griha Aadhar Scheme and Ladli Lakshmi Scheme for women. Months before the last election in 2016, the party increased the money under the Griha Aadhar Scheme from Rs 1,000 to 1,500.

The Congress, which is also contesting all seats in alliance with the Goa Forward Party, has not made such a promise but 30 percent reservation for women in government jobs.

The Trinamool Congress, whose alliance with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party has fielded 39 candidates, announced the launch of its Griha Lakshmi Card under which one woman from every house will receive Rs 5,000 irrespective of their monthly income. According to TMC’s state incharge Mahua Moitra, this will be a “pioneering” and “transformative” scheme.

The Aam Aadmi Party, which is also fielding 39 candidates, has promised that the amount under the Griha Aadhar Scheme would be hiked from Rs 1,500 to 2,500 and all women above the age of 18 will additionally receive Rs 1,000, irrespective of family income. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal called this the “world’s biggest women empowerment programme”.

But what does this mean?

At 3.76 percent, compared to most states in India, Goa’s poverty ratio is low. The rural (4.44 per cent) and urban divide (3.34 per cent) is also not dramatic. But even with this low ratio, the poor often find it difficult to avail cash assistance, considering delays and pending clearance.

As of February 2021, 1.3 lakh women avail the Griha Aadhar Scheme. In 2020, due to the financial crisis faced by Goa during the pandemic, payments were heavily delayed and some have still not got the money. “Some months I get the money and some months I don’t…It’s very unreliable,” said Percy Sarao, a 58-year-old resident of Vasco De Gama.

As of February 2021, close to 16,000 Griha Aadhar applications and 18,095 Ladli Lakshmi Scheme applications were pending for clearance.

According to Deepali Naik, director at the directorate of women and child development, this pendency and delay has been largely caused due to the pandemic. “New cases were not processed because our offices were not functioning as per routine,” she said. “People also give half filled out forms, or they don’t have all the documents. We have also started online services and decentralised this problem and told them that they can go to their taluk office instead of coming to our office. There’s a lot of ignorance among people as well.”

“Cash assistance is helpful but the issue is with how these schemes function,” said Sabina Martins, a 57-year-old school teacher who has been running Bailancho Saad﹘a non-funded women’s collective on security of women﹘for the last 35 years. “For example, take the Griha Aadhar Scheme. Firstly, this is a government scheme but most of the time it is the MLA who distributes the forms. So this means that a woman has to often go to the MLA…one has to get the MLA’s signature. And Goa is a small state, so most people know each other and who they support…if an MLA doesn’t like you, he might not give you the document,” she said.

Anami Harmalkar, a single mother of two who lives in a small shed in Anjuna, said she worked as a house help, cook and babysitter to sustain her family after being abandoned by her husband 10 years ago. “Sometimes, I feel like these schemes are not really for women like me.”

Anami told Newslaundry that she has visited her panchayat office multiple times for documents and forms “but everytime they want some new document or they tell me to come back later. I can’t keep begging for this money”.

In 2017, while her children were still studying, she started a food handcart near the beach for a monthly profit of Rs 3,000, and applied for the Griha Aadhar Scheme in 2018 but still hasn’t been able to avail it though “it’s been four years”. “I have filled out the form at least three times. I’ve had to go to the MLA to get his signature. Sometimes he’s not there and then I’ve to go another day…they asked me to get an income certificate from the panchayat but this is the problem, they are always asking for so many documents.”

Anami has been applying for the Laadli Lakshmi Scheme since 2019 when her daughter was 17 years old; married women above the age of 18 or unmarried women younger than 18 with a family income of less than Rs 3 lakh can apply for the scheme. “I visited the office three times. The office is in Panjim…I have to spend close to Rs 100 each time I come to the government office…they turn me away asking me to bring some other document…Rs 100 is not a small amount,” she said.

Today, her son is an electronic engineer while the daughter is pursuing an undergraduate degree.

Sabina Martins said another woman called Pushpa who has a Griha Aadhar Card has not been able to avail the money because her bank shut down. “She then made a new account but that took a few months. So she lost the money for those months.”

Smitha Shaik, 56, a homemaker in Panjim, said the scheme is “not practical” either. “Cash assistance is not just irregular but it also has not been increased keeping in mind inflation”.

Prakash Kamat, a former veteran journalist who has worked in Goa for more than 30 years, explained that while parties are focusing their campaign on women, they “have not bothered to really understand what issues women face. That’s why they’re promising money. Older parties know that women will be happy if you give them money and new parties have simply followed suit without trying to understand Goan women or their needs”.

Kamat also asked, “Why are no parties talking about any real plans of empowerment for women or issues of marginalised women? It’s because, forget policies for women, we don’t even have proper representation of women in politics.”

Representation of women

TMC has fielded four women candidates while three parties﹘Goa Forward Party, Shiv Sena ally Nationalist Congress Party and Jai Maha Bharat Party﹘have none.

MGP’s Taleigao candidate Shubangi Vaigankar said, “Even my own party should be fielding more candidates. Women here are not supported or encouraged to come out and contest.”

BJP’s Cumbarjua candidate Janita Pandurang Madkaikar, who has twice served as sarpanch, said, “I am contesting this election because my husband is unwell. Otherwise he would have contested alone”.

AAP’s Taleigao candidate Cecille Rodrigues said “you need strong financial backing if you want to contest elections” in Goa. “You also need to have a political godfather if you want to win. So the political space is clearly male-dominated.”

Prakash Kamat said, “Most candidates during election time woo their voters by showing muscle power, by giving free alcohol…men here know that women will not function this way. That’s why political parties will see fielding women candidates as a headache.”

All the women candidates Newslaundry spoke to agreed that apart from cash assistance, political parties need to focus their campaigns more on issues related to crime against women.

Other issues

Addressing financial constraints is not the only problem faced by women.

Arunendra Pandey is one of the founders and president of Anyay Rahit Zindagi foundation which is a non-profit based in Goa since 1997 and works on issues linked to sexual violence. The Goa police has appointed ARZ foundation as the nodal NGO of anti-human trafficking in Goa.

According to Pandey, the focus that political parties give to cash assistance completely overshadows some major issues of women. “Giving money is non controversial. It’s the easy way out. Any voter is excited by it,” he said. “Most parties here don’t want to take the risk of talking about crime against women. Why? Because the offenders are mostly men and offending the male voter can also be a risk.”

Research done by ARZ foundation revealed that most of the trafficking that happens in Goa, is based out of places like West Bengal, Maharashtra and Delhi. Three parties – AAP, TMC and Shiv Sena – which are contesting in Goa are significant players in these three states. “We have raised these issues multiple times with these parties, especially after they decided to contest in Goa but sex trafficking has never really found a mention in their manifestos, or speeches,” said Pandey.

While the state’s ‘Pink Police Force’ meant to ensure safety of women, children and tourists, is an initiative, Goa lacks the basic infrastructure to deal with cases of crime. It has only one forensic science laboratory in Verna which according to the Goa police website is “at a developing stage”.

In October 2021, a day after Union Minister Amit Shah inaugurated the first forensics science university in Goa, Goa DGP Mukesh Kumar Meena said, “Goa police still sends many samples to other places for forensic testing. We don’t have a facility for conducting DNA and fingerprinting tests at the Goa forensics laboratory.”

While it was suggested by the department of justice that Goa have two fast track special courts, the state government in November 2021 only approved for one. The data given by the department of justice, as of June 2021, does not reveal the pendency at the FTSC in Goa.

As of October 2021, according to data tabled in the Goa assembly, there have been just nine convictions in 387 cases of rape reported since 2016. According to NCRB data of 2020, Goa’s conviction rate for overall crime against women is 14.7 percent while pendency rate stands at 95.7 percent.

Auda Viegas, women’s rights activist for close to 30 years in Goa and founder of Bailancho Ekvott (women together), an NGO which assists police in rescuing and rehabilitation survivors of sexual violence, said her NGO dealt with 304 cases in 2020. In 2021 the number rose to 394 and in January 2022 alone, she has dealt with 28 cases of violence, including cases of rape, domestic violence, sex trafficking and more. She also said that during the pandemic, there’s been a steep rise in the cases of domestic violence. But according to NCRB data, from 2015 to 2019, Goa has recorded zero cases of domestic violence.

Asked about why the BJP in power has not focused on many of these women’s issues in the campaign, party candidate Janita Pandurang Madkaikar said, “Politicians can’t do anything about crime…Rape is done on the beach by tourists. There are no cases of rape by Goans…politicians will not talk about it. It happens everywhere, not just in Goa.”

Pictures by Aditya Varier; research inputs from Saeeduzzaman.